Draft:BlackSky Technology

BlackSky Technology Inc. is a space technology company headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, United States, that designs, owns, and operates low Earth orbit small satellite constellations. BlackSky's Spectra AI software platform processes imagery from BlackSky's satellite constellation and from third-party sensors to provide geospatial intelligence to defense and intelligence organizations throughout the world as well as commercial entities across a variety of industries including financial services and the energy sector.

BlackSky deploys high-resolution imaging sensors on its satellites, capable of capturing detailed images across various spectral bands. BlackSky aims to provide near-real-time data delivery. By combining rapid satellite revisit periods and efficient data processing, BlackSky provides data applicable to scenarios such as urban planning, environmental monitoring, disaster response , maritime tracking , intelligence , and national security.

BlackSky is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as BKSY.

History
BlackSky began as a subsidiary of Spaceflight Industries as its geospatial intelligence service offering on-demand images from a constellation of satellites. Founders wished to leverage the advantages of smaller satellites to achieve scalability and cost-effectiveness. It was hoped that smaller satellites would enable frequent launches and rapid revisit rates, reducing barriers to entry and enhancing the efficiency of Earth observation.

In 2021, BlackSky Holdings, Inc. completed a merger with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp. to take BlackSky public in a deal valuing the equity of the combined entity at $1.5 billion. The combined company was renamed "BlackSky Technology Inc."

Satellites
BlackSky's first generation satellite, BlackSky Pathfinder 1, was launched on 26 September 2016 onboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and the first pictures were released publicly on 14 November 2016.

The U.S.-built Earth observing platform weighed about 97 pounds (44 kilograms). The main objective of the Pathfinder was to return imagery to prove the basic technology behind a planned commercial Earth-observing satellite fleet. The satellite was designed for a three-year lifetime with an imaging resolution of about 3.3 feet (1 meter) from an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers).

Two demonstration satellites, Pathfinder-1 and Pathfinder-2 were built to evaluate the system, but as Pathfinder-1 met all technology demonstration goals, Pathfinder-2 was not launched.

In September 2017 a joint venture with Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio was announced to operate a constellation of 60 fast-revisit, high-resolution Earth-observation satellites built by LeoStella LLC, a joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, which established a new smallsat manufacturing facility in the United States. LeoStella was contracted to deliver 20 satellites to establish and maintain an initial constellation of 16 satellites. The constellation was planned to offer 1-meter resolution and rapid satellite revisit rates. Spaceflight announced in March 2018 that they had secured a Series C round of funding for $150 million to fund the development of the next 20 Global satellites. In April 2018, BlackSky announced a contract with Deep Space Industries (DSI), for a block of 20 Comet water-based satellite propulsion systems.

In late 2018, BlackSky launched BlackSky Global-1 and BlackSky Global-2, two of the company's next generation global satellites, aboard the SSO-A mission.

The satellites feature the SpaceView-24 imaging system built by Harris Corp.'s Exelis with an aperture of 24 cm and ground resolution of 0.9 - 1.1 m from an orbital height of 500 km. They have a onboard propulsion for a 3 year orbital life. The satellites were built by Spaceflight Services based on their SCOUT bus.

The BlackSky "block 2" satellites featured improvements over the Block 1 Pathfinder satellites. They had increased solar arrays and the ability to image in four bands and panchromatic mode. Each can produce 1,000 images per day, both in stills or video mode.

BlackSky Global-3 and BlackSky Global-4 satellites were launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket in August 2019 and BlackSky Global-7 and BlackSky Global-8 were launched in August 2020 as part of the SXRS-1 rideshare mission. BlackSky Global-9 was launched 22 March 2021 on an Electron Photon but two more launched on an Electron KS on 15 May 2021 failed. Two further BlackSky satellites were launched and successfully deployed into orbit on April 2, 2022 by Rocket Lab aboard another Electron rocket.

In January 2020, BlackSky received a contract from the U.S. Army to prototype satellites with 50-centimeter resolution. In September 2020, they unveiled their third generation of satellites, scheduled to launch in 2022, that would provide 50-centimeter resolution imagery. They also announced that 16 of the second generation satellites would be launched before phasing in the third-generation units.

BlackSky will provide satellite imagery services and imaging spacecraft to the Republic of Indonesia under a $50 million deal announced in early 2024 working with Thales Alenia Space.

BlackSky will provide data derived from analyzing satellite imagery to train AI models focused on tracking moving objects from space. The $2M contract was awarded in 2024 by the defense contractor Axient on behalf of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.