{"id":477437,"date":"2026-02-19T07:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477437\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T07:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:57:06","slug":"diu-wants-commercially-developed-imagery-satellites-for-on-orbit-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477437\/","title":{"rendered":"DIU wants commercially developed imagery satellites for on-orbit spying"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)<\/a> wants to buy commercially produced satellites to take close-ups of other spacecraft in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), according to a new solicitation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The goal of the new Geosynchronous High-Resolution Optical Space-Based Tactical Reconnaissance (GHOST-R) program is to rapidly put on orbit the capability keep near real-time tabs on the whereabouts of both \u201cadversary and friendly\u201d satellites, as well as take good enough pictures to be able to discern their purposes, explains the call for industry proposals published on Monday by the Pentagon\u2019s in-house accelerator.<\/p>\n

And DIU would like to do so at a lower price point than the Space Force\u2019s current space domain awareness<\/a> programs for GEO, some 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) in altitude. Those current programs are the venerable\u00a0Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP)<\/a> neighborhood watch constellation and its planned successor known as\u00a0RG-XX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The proposed new satellites for DIU \u201cmust reduce costs compared to existing and planned programs of record while achieving high-resolution image collection, allowing for increased collection frequency and detailed characterization of resident space objects (RSOs) in GEO. The successful deployment of these capabilities will significantly improve GEO RSO Characterization, Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), Positive Identification (PID), and Combat Identification (CID),\u201d DIU states.<\/p>\n

Bidders must be able to provide within 24 months of an award a \u201cminimal viable product\u201d comprising a \u201chigh-resolution electro optical (EO) image\u201d of a GEO-stationed satellite \u201cusing a commercially operated space vehicle,\u201d according to the solicitation. The resolution is for a precise image of a medium-sized (about 700 kilograms) satellite taken from \u201cno closer than\u201d 10 kilometers.<\/p>\n

Within 36 months, the winning vendors need to be able to transition their satellite and ground operations from a contractor-owned\/operated system to a government-owned\/operated one. Finally, within in 48 months, the satellite must demonstrate the ability to perform at least one pass by a target spacecraft per week \u201cthrough the first year of government operations,\u201d according to DIU.<\/p>\n

The proposed satellites should meet Defense Department cybersecurity requirements and be designed for a three-year lifespan, and the bus and primary payload systems must show a \u201cproven space heritage\u201d by 2028, the solicitation adds. Competitors also need to show a plan for scaling up a constellation that can maintain \u201ca 30-day revisit rate\u201d for every GEO space object listed in US Space Command\u2019s publicly available catalog, Space-Track.org<\/a>, over a 10-year period.<\/p>\n

Interested vendors have until March 3 to send in a proposal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) wants to buy commercially produced satellites to take close-ups of other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[220770,180921,220771,166018,79,193,59548,11716],"class_list":{"0":"post-477437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-commercial-satellite-imagery","9":"tag-defense-innovation-unit","10":"tag-geosynchronous-space-situational-awareness-program","11":"tag-rg-xx","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-space-domain-awareness-sda","15":"tag-space-force"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477437","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=477437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}