Weekly GEOINT Community News

BlackSky Global Launches Pathfinder-1

BlackSky’s Pathfinder-1 satellite launched from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle Sept. 25. The Spaceflight Industries launch team confirmed successful signal acquisition and is continuing to monitor communications from its operations center in Seattle. Pathfinder-1 and -2 are key demonstration satellites for BlackSky’s planned 60-satellite constellation. The first three commercially operational satellites are scheduled for launch in 2017, with the complete constellation on orbit by 2020.

NGA Awards Six Small Businesses

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded six contracts as part of the agency’s small business set-aside initiative. The contracts support EMERALD, an agency-wide program providing total lifecycle acquisition management, strategic financial management, and strategic business management support services. The businesses include USGIF Organizational Members S2 Analytical Solutions and Knowledge Link Inc., as well as New River Systems Corporation, St. Michaels Inc., Agile Support Alliance, and WiSC Enterprises.

Esri Becomes NOAA-NWS Ambassador, Collaborates with Microsoft

Esri will participate in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador initiative, which collaborates with organizations to strengthen extreme weather preparedness. According to the press release, as NOAA migrates toward more GIS use and visual mapping displays, Esri’s contributions of story maps and web apps for safety campaigns will be more significant.

Additionally, Esri is collaborating with Microsoft Corp. on Microsoft Power Business Intelligence (BI) and Microsoft Azure, two new offerings making geospatial analytics available to a broader audience. Esri’s ArcGIS platform will be integrated into Power BI, a cloud-based set of business analytics tools enabling enterprise users to create dashboards, reports, and data visualization. Esri’s ArcGIS Pro will be used for Microsoft Azure, enabling GIS users to visualize, edit, and analyze geographic data in both 2D and 3D, as well as to share their work with others.

Airbus Launches New Imagery Library

Airbus Defence and Space released One Atlas, a new satellite image base map, which covers Earth land masses with professional grade imagery. One Atlas provides customers with easy access to quality imagery and facilitates the sharing of data across teams or partner organizations without compromising security or privacy. It also enables users to plan, map, and locate their teams, assets, or areas of interest anywhere on the globe.

Harris Delivers GPS Receiver to Raytheon, Adds AR to Jagwire

Harris Corp. delivered the first of 34 modernized satellite receivers to Raytheon for the next-generation GPS ground system Raytheon is developing for the U.S. Air Force, reports Space News. In addition to the receiver, Harris has already delivered 14 ground encryptors that will help protect the GPS signal. Raytheon Intelligence, Information, and Services is the prime contractor for the Air Force’s Operational Control System, which will eventually replace the current GPS ground system.

Additionally, Harris Geospatial Solutions announced it now has augmented reality overlay capability on Jagwire, its web-based geospatial data management software. The new capability is powered by SmartCam3D via collaboration with Rapid Imaging Software. Video with augmented reality overlays enhances situation awareness for teams in the field, analysts, and decision-makers. A sensor operator capturing video from a manned or unmanned aircraft or an analyst reviewing recorded video after a flight will be better able to identify objects in the view.

OGSystems Partners with Planet

OGSystems announced it has partnered with Planet in the development of BlueGlass, OGSystems’ location-based intelligence platform. BlueGlass combines commercial remote sensing, big data, and cognitive analytics to deliver real-time insights through situational awareness, anomaly alerting, and reporting of activities that could pose risk to the operations of its users. Planet is OGSystems’ first partner in BlueGlass, and will assist OGSystems in providing customers with the most up-to-date information for decision-making.

Peer Intel

Andy Dougherty was appointed president of Continental Mapping, effective Oct. 10. Dougherty has worked for a variety of companies in the GEOINT Community, including DigitalGlobe, KEYW, and Northrop Grumman.

Photo Credit: ISRO