BlackSky imagery integrated into the Palantir Foundry platform. Image via Business Wire

BlackSky has completed a joint pilot project with Palantir Technologies Inc. integrating BlackSky’s commercial satellite imagery and analytics into the Palantir enterprise platform for defense and intelligence customers. 

Palantir is a software company founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel that builds enterprise data platforms for use by organizations with complex and sensitive data environments.

BlackSky said in a Monday announcement that its own data platform Spectra AI was integrated into Palantir data platform Foundry, and was able to deliver insights within minutes of data collection without human involvement. BlackSky said the pilot “combined high-resolution imagery and deep analytics to inform decision makers and demonstrated the powerful impact of global monitoring from space and real-time insights.” 

“Our collaboration with BlackSky radically compresses the decision-chain for warfighters,” said Shyam Sankar, COO of Palantir Technologies. “It gives users unprecedented control over orbital sensors, and operationalizes AI insights from space to support better, faster decisions on earth. Palantir’s software continues to provide the operating system for operational decision-making at the edge across domains, from space to mud.”

The companies did not elaborate on what further collaboration might look like. 

BlackSky is going through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal to become a publicly traded company. In its investor presentation, BlackSky is benchmarked against Palantir and other similar companies. CEO Brian O’Toole told Via Satellite that BlackSky’s business model is in line with those software companies. 

“I would say we’re more of a software and data analytics company that happens to own satellites, then we are a space company,” he said. “We’re using space as a competitive advantage to get unique insights around what’s going on in the world. But ultimately, our DNA is in software and data analytics.”