WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. spy satellite agency has added three new commercial imaging firms to a growing roster of vendors it is testing for future intelligence missions.<\/p>\n
The National Reconnaissance Office, which designs, builds and operates the United States\u2019 fleet of intelligence satellites, said Feb. 10 it has signed Strategic Commercial Enhancements agreements with HEO, SatVu and Sierra Nevada Corp.<\/p>\n
The agency said this marks a continuation of its push to tap private-sector space capabilities alongside government-owned systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NRO is always looking for innovative ways to bring on new partners,\u201d said Chris Scolese, director of the NRO. \u201cThis helps ensure we have access to the latest technologies to advance our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SCE program is designed to let the NRO evaluate commercially generated data and determine how it could be integrated into intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Rather than committing immediately to long-term data buys, the agency uses these agreements to test performance, utility and scalability across different sensing technologies.<\/p>\n
HEO will provide non-Earth imagery focused on objects in orbit, SatVu will deliver medium-wave infrared imagery, and Sierra Nevada will support radio-frequency, or RF, sensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
HEO, an Australian startup, uses space-based sensors to inspect and image satellites and other objects in orbit. London-based SatVu operates thermal imaging satellites that detect heat signatures from Earth\u2019s surface. Sierra Nevada, an aerospace and defense contractor, operates a constellation that captures RF emissions data.<\/p>\n
The agency said the companies were selected through a \u201cCommercial Solutions Opening\u201d solicitation issued in July 2025. CSOs are a contracting approach that emphasizes rapid evaluation of commercial offerings. The NRO\u2019s CSO uses a two-stage process: an initial phase focused on modeling and simulation, followed by a second phase that assesses on-orbit performance and the maturity of operational products.<\/p>\n
Budget permitting, the NRO said it expects to issue additional awards later this year to expand its access to what it calls multi-phenomenology data \u2014 information collected across different sensing modes such as optical, radar, infrared and RF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NRO is using a variety of acquisition processes and contract models to bring in new talent and providers and cut the time from concept to delivery,\u201d said Pete Meund, director of the NRO\u2019s commercial systems program office.<\/p>\n
Previous selections under the program included five electro-optical imaging contracts in December 2023, six hyperspectral imaging contracts in March 2023, six RF contracts in September 2022 and five radar contracts in January 2022.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. spy satellite agency has added three new commercial imaging firms to a growing roster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[138015,135425,14929,215546,79,113458,722,193],"class_list":["post-462259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-heo","tag-imagery","tag-nro","tag-satvu","tag-science","tag-sierra-nevada","tag-sn","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}