The country's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is providing massive funding to companies that focus on Earth Observation technology in their recent ventures. The companies include BlackSky, Maxar, and Planet, which all have stakes on a surveillance technology in space that looks over the planet's events or changes from the heavens.
National Reconnaissance Office Funds Earth Observation Tech
(Photo : NASA/Newsmakers)
STS-79 astronauts enjoy this view of the Mir complex backdropped against the blackness of space over Earth's horizon.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) announced that they are awarding massive commercial contracts to three companies that present their technology for Earth observation. The focus of this venture is to help these companies gain funding, and it will also help the NRO for their stakes in the information gathered by their technology.
The three companies included in this venture are BlackSky, Maxar, and Planet, all of which are known startup names in the industry. It will help the NRO achieve its historic expansion towards the commercial acquisition of the imagery technology available to the public.
The contract has massive funds amounting to millions that it brought for the three partner companies.
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BlackSky, Maxar, and Planet: Who Are They?
According to a Twitter post of NRO, the three companies it funded are massive names that it would partner up with and gain stakes in their operations in the coming years of its ventures. BlackSky is a company that claims to be the leading provider of geospatial intelligence. At the same time, Maxar focuses on spacecraft and Earth intelligence ventures.
Lastly, Planet focuses on Earth observation satellites that capture its daily changes.
Earth-Watching Satellites
NASA and other partners in the space industry do not ensure that space is the only one that will have eyes set on it, as the planet deserves as much attention as the great unknown. An example of this venture would be the Landsat satellite that recently launched the Landsat-9 to bring the latest spacecraft that will help in their mission.
Another famous Earth-watching satellite would be a venture from the European Space Union, with the renowned Sentinel-1 spacecraft that floats around the planet's orbit. The recent happening on the Sentinel-1 is its maneuver to avoid the floating Russian space debris in orbit, which the spacecraft and its team avoided and saved its satellite.
The venture toward Earth-watching satellites is massive, and the government agencies and its stakeholders all focus on this kind of venture to keep the world's security in check. Earth observation tools are one famous venture, but it has been the case of privacy and security in the past years as these satellites can track and know information.
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Written by Isaiah Richard
