NRO Selects 6 Companies for Hyperspectral Imagery Study Contracts; Christopher Scolese Quoted

Six companies have received contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office to study commercial hyperspectral imagery capabilities.

BlackSky Technology (NYSE: BKSY), HyperSat, Orbital Sidekick, Pixxel, Planet (NYSE: PL) and Xplore secured the study contracts under NRO’s Strategic Commercial Enhancement broad agency announcement, the agency said Wednesday.

“Through these newest contracts, we are very excited to explore the potential of commercial hyperspectral imagery and what it may be able to contribute to our world-class intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities,” said Christopher Scolese, director of NRO and a 2023 Wash100 awardee.

The commercial HSI contracts are composed of two stages and the initial stage will focus on analytical studies to generate estimates of system capabilities at constellation and sensor levels and cover cybersecurity and business planning. The second phase will assess on-orbit capabilities and acquire data products.

In September 2022, NRO awarded six companies study contracts to explore radio frequency remote sensing capabilities.