Weekly GEOINT Community News

DigitalGlobe Completes Continent-Wide Mapping Mission for Australia

Maxar’s DigitalGlobe announced the completion of Geoscape, a dataset created for PSMA Australia to map the built environment of Australia. The project used AI, machine learning, and crowdsourcing to identify 15 million buildings, 1.2 million swimming pools, 1.2 million solar panels, and more throughout the continent. This dataset could provide key insights for infrastructure and urban planning, insurance risk modeling, and taxation activities.

NRO Extends DigitalGlobe EnhancedView Contract

DigitalGlobe has signed a three-year extension of its existing EnhancedView Service Level Agreement with the National Reconnaissance Office for a value of $300 million per year. The terms of the contract provide for continuity of capacity as the company prepares to retire its GeoEye-1, WorldView-1, and WorldView-2 satellites by accessing capacity on the WorldView Legion constellation currently under construction. The contract has been renamed EnhancedView Follow-On.

DARPA Selects Radiant to Develop Optical Telescope

Maxar’s Radiant Solutions was selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to lead a team in designing, building, and demonstrating a next-generation optical telescope system for agile small satellite constellations. The telescope system’s lightweight design and large field-of-view is expected to enable the rapid, affordable manufacture of carrier satellites. Radiant will provide geospatial mission engineering expertise and will partner with SSL on spacecraft hardware.

Raytheon Selected for DARPA’s Digital Arrays Program

Raytheon received an $11.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide research and development for DARPA’s Millimeter-Wave Digital Arrays (MIDAS) program. MIDAS aims to develop and demonstrate digital beam-forming array technologies at millimeter wave frequencies. Raytheon will develop digital tile architectures and scalable apertures equipped with transmit-and-receive features.

General Atomics Receives Air Force UAV Contract

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems secured a potential three-year, $263.4 million contract to produce MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles for the U.S. Air Force. Work will occur at a company facility in Poway, Calif., through Nov. 30, 2021.

SAIC Wins Naval C5ISR Contract           

The U.S. Navy awarded SAIC a five-year, $597 million contract for the production and delivery of integrated C5ISR systems for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic. Task orders under the contract will include the integration of engineered cable assemblies, mounting kit assemblies, hardware, and software/security applications.

Esri Technology Now Available on FirstNet

Esri’s Explorer for ArcGIS app is now listed in the FirstNet App Catalog. The Explorer tool allows first responders to access their agency’s maps in the field on mobile devices for better situational awareness. Esri is also providing access to location-based APIs, SDKs, and other apps to support developers using geospatial capabilities for public safety.

ICEYE to Launch X2 SAR Satellite

ICEYE is planning to launch its second synthetic aperture radar satellite, ICEYE-X2, into low Earth orbit on Spaceflight’s SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission. The mission is currently targeted to launch Nov. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Peer Intel

Peraton announced the appointment of Alan Stewart as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He will be responsible for the company’s financial planning, accounting, government reporting, and auditing functions.

Photo Credit: Geoscape