Satellite imagery and AI-enabled analytics show the scale of the Russian Black Sea fleet’s dispersal from the port of Novorossiysk in Russia on September 11, 2024. Photo: BlackSky

BlackSky Technology on Tuesday said that it won a “multimillion dollar” contract from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to manage and operate one of the company’s Generation-3 Earth imaging satellites for the Tactical GEOINT (TACGEO) program.

The December 2024 contract builds on an award BlackSky announced in September 2020 with DIU that included a preliminary design review of the Gen-3 satellite for the Army TACGEO prototype program. On Feb. 18, Rocket Lab launched the first spacecraft for BlackSky’s planned Gen-3 constellation.

The TACGEO program began as a research, development, and technology effort to leverage a Gen-3 satellite for responsive tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) from space. The government has provided input into developing Gen-3 since 2020 as part of a broader effort to develop space-based tactical ISR capabilities, a company spokesperson said.

For the TACGEO effort, the government will own the Gen-3 satellite and BlackSky will handle hardware and systems integration, launch site and mission management, and commissioning services.

The Gen-3 satellite acquired by the government will “work in parallel to BlackSky’s Gen-3 constellation and the customer will retain tasking authority for the satellite,” the spokesperson said. “Once on orbit BlackSky will operate the satellite, delivering data through either our commercial architecture or through customer-owned remote ground terminals.”

A date for launch of the TACGEO Gen-3 bird was not provided. DIU said that BlackSky is working through the U.S. Space Force’s Space Test Program to find a launch vehicle to lift the satellite into low-Earth orbit.

The third-generation satellites “will enable rapid distribution of highly responsive insights to warfighter to support concurrent wargames, exercises, and combat training center events and help measure technology readiness,” the company said.

The electro-optic Gen-3 satellites will eventually include new low-latency inter-satellite communication links. The future constellation will also offer automatic detection, identification, and classification of more vehicles, aircraft, vessels, and other items of interest, and the ability to image through smoke and haze with short-wave infrared bands.

In addition to the TACGEO awards, BlackSky has other government research and development contracts to develop space-based tactical GEOINT capabilities, including work with the Air Force Research laboratory for ground moving target indication, and a Navy research contract to explore optical inter-satellite links.

This story was first published by Defense Daily