Weekly GEOINT Community News

NGA Signs Second Contract with Planet

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced a $14 million, one-year subscription to Planet. According to the press release, the subscription—made through Planet’s General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule Contract—enables the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community to access Planet’s imagery of more than 25 select regions of interest, ranging from portions of the Middle-East, Asia, and Africa to Central and South America. This contract follows a seven-month, $20 million pilot contract that began in September 2016.

OGSystems Spins Off BlueGlass Analytics Platform

OGSystems announced its location-based analytics BlueGlass platform has been spun off into an independent private company named GeoSpark Analytics. GeoSpark Analytics will continue the development of BlueGlass, building an ecosystem of applications and services that bring together big data from space, ground, and cyber with artificial intelligence and machine learning. OGSystems will be the exclusive integrator of the BlueGlass platform, now powered by GeoSpark Analytics.

Google Takes Street View to International Space Station

Google Street View has gone beyond Earth for the first time to offer Street View for the International Space Station (ISS). According to The Verge, Street View now allows users to explore the spaceship in panoramic 360-degree imagery in 15 connected modules. Users can check out all areas of the spacecraft and click on launch notes for more details. Google also released this behind the scenes video on mapping the ISS.

Geoscience Australia Releases Sea Floor Map

Geoscience Australia, the Australian government’s geoscientific research agency, released sea floor mapping data collected during the first phase of the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in 2014. The search involved collecting large volumes of data in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Topographic data was collected to develop maps of the sea floor in the search area. Although the search did not uncover the missing aircraft, it did reveal undiscovered volcanoes, mountain ridges, and deep trenches that will contribute to a greater understanding of deep ocean geology. View the data here.

Peer Intel

Orbital Insight appointed Chris Incardona vice president of public sector and strategic program development. In this role, Incardona will pursue clientele in the defense, intelligence, and civil sectors of government. 

Barry Tilton joined Vricon as its vice president of engineering and chief technology officer for the company’s government programs. Tilton will spearhead efforts to create new content and improve response times and product quality for Vricon’s customers.

Photo Credit: Google Street View