BlackSky Wins Five-Year NGA Luno A Contract Valued Up to $290 Million to Monitor Global Economic Activity and Military Capability
HERNDON, Va. – BlackSky Technology Inc. was awarded a five-year, up to $290 million multi-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity NGA contract to monitor global economic and environmental activity and military capability using high-cadence, rapid revisit satellite imagery and AI-driven change-detection analytics.
“Today, BlackSky monitors over more than 30 million square kilometers of the Earth’s surface for the NGA.”
Under the contract, BlackSky expects to provide analytical services that detect and identify objects of interest such as aircraft, ships, vehicles, and shipping containers. BlackSky will use its current and future time-diverse satellite constellation to provide change-monitoring services over critical infrastructure. BlackSky will leverage its proprietary broad area search capability to automatically detect and identify changes to the Earth resulting from human and natural activities such as deforestation, construction, mining, flooding and other phenomena that contribute to climate change or wildfires.
“The Luno A contract validates demand for BlackSky’s commercial real-time, AI-driven dynamic monitoring services at massive scale,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “BlackSky’s first-of-its-kind space-based intelligence system delivers answers to our customers’ most pressing questions at industry-leading speed and economics.”
The contract also supports the development of new and emerging products, data and services such as novel AI solutions and techniques to manage large volumes of data, generate insights and develop predictive analytics. BlackSky’s scalable and cost-effective approach to artificial intelligence gives customers the ability to run data-intensive broad area search inquiries more frequently compared to traditional solutions.
“BlackSky’s commitment to automation across our entire architecture has had the cumulative effect of generating new, foundational machine learning tools for the U.S. government that will advance the key areas of focus for Luno A,” said O’Toole. “Today, BlackSky monitors over more than 30 million square kilometers of the Earth’s surface for the NGA.”
BlackSky’s easy-to-access, subscription-based services will support the NGA’s efforts to modernize workflows and seamlessly integrate data and services into its enterprise capabilities. The NGA has indicated that the unclassified nature of commercial data will ensure that Luno A products, data, and services are easily shareable with key partners and allies across the globe.
Luno A is the follow-on contract to the NGA’s $60 million Economic Indicator Monitoring (EIM) contract which was originally awarded in 2021. The EIM contract focused on purchasing commercial data as services to integrate into the NGA’s machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts. BlackSky won six competitive delivery orders under the EIM program.
About BlackSky
BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. BlackSky delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, monitoring and analytics of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events in the world.
BlackSky designs, owns and operates one of the industry’s leading low earth orbit small satellite constellations, optimized to capture imagery cost-efficiently where and when our customers need it. BlackSky’s Spectra AI software platform processes data from BlackSky’s constellation and from other third-party sensors to develop the critical insights and analytics that our customers require.
BlackSky is relied upon by U.S. and international government agencies, commercial businesses, and organizations around the world. BlackSky is headquartered in Herndon, VA, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as BKSY. To learn more, visit www.blacksky.com and follow us on X (formerly Twitter).
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to BlackSky. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections, and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document. If any of these risks materialize or underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect our expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
