Three commercial providers contracted and the data they will supply
The National Reconnaissance Office has awarded three new contracts under its Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) vehicle to commercial satellite-data providers, Pete Muend, head of the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office, told the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s annual GEOINT Symposium. The awards went to:
- Earth Daily (a Canadian startup) — to provide electro-optical imagery;
- ICEYE — to provide radio frequency (RF) geo-location data; and
- Pixxel (an Indian startup) — to provide hyperspectral imagery.
Muend noted that Earth Daily and Pixxel are brand-new providers to the NRO, while ICEYE already holds a previous NRO contract to supply synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery.
How CSO differs from previous NRO commercial contracting
Muend described the CSO as a departure from the agency’s earlier small-dollar, short-term engagements run under the Strategic Commercial Enhancement Broad Area Announcement program. The CSO began with a request for proposals last July and produced its first three awards in February; the recent three marks an additional set of selections under that vehicle.
Unlike the prior program, CSO allows longer contract terms and enables companies to submit unsolicited proposals across multiple space-based phenomenologies. Muend enumerated the modalities CSO will accept: electro-optical, SAR, hyperspectral, RF geolocation and LIDAR — giving commercial vendors a broader set of entry points to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data from space.
NRO coordination with the Space Force and TacSRT
Muend discussed NRO cooperation with the US Space Force, saying his office tries to provide data that fits the requirements of the service’s Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking (TacSRT) program. He reported that the two organizations signed an agreement last spring — a development first reported by Breaking Defense — defining how they will share acquisition authority for, and access to, imagery and other ISR data.
On current acquisition efforts, Muend said the relationship is progressing well, but he signaled that integrating some emerging commercial capabilities will require additional work. “I think there’s probably even a little bit more work to do to make sure that when we buy data, it seamlessly fits into that those that buy those more analytic products, be it on the IC side within [the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency] and maybe our Space Force colleagues at Tac-SRT, just to make sure that that’s as seamless as possible,” he said.
NRO’s proposed role in vetting commercial AMTI capabilities
Muend suggested the NRO could act as an early evaluator of commercial companies proposing airborne moving target indication (AMTI) capabilities for the Space Force. The Space Force in April awarded its first nine contracts for AMTI but did not disclose the winning companies or the contract values.
“If a commercial company has a compelling AMTI capability, we’ll certainly be one of the first ones in line to demonstrate that and see if there’s a there there,” Muend said, framing NRO participation as a step that could help determine whether emerging commercial sensors deliver usable on-orbit results.
What this means for Earth Daily, ICEYE, Pixxel, the Space Force, and NGA
- Earth Daily, Pixxel and ICEYE — All three will now move from selection toward the modeling, simulation and, ultimately, on-orbit demonstration phases Muend described; ICEYE also continues work under its existing SAR contract.
- Space Force (TacSRT) — The service will look to have commercial data acquired under CSO fit TacSRT’s operational requirements, relying on the NRO and the agreement signed last spring to coordinate acquisition and access.
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) — As an analytic consumer identified by Muend, the NGA will be a primary customer whose products must ingest and use the commercial data seamlessly once companies move from modeling to on-orbit deliveries.
Muend’s framing makes clear the near-term path: modeling and simulation first, followed by on-orbit capabilities and data acquisition. The specific technical and programmatic steps that will ensure commercial electro-optical, hyperspectral, RF geolocation and other modalities plug smoothly into TacSRT and analytic pipelines remain to be exercised in practice — and the industry, Space Force, NRO and NGA will be watching how those demonstrations perform.
