BlackSky‘s fifth and sixth global satellites completed commissioning, and are in commercial operations having successfully achieved first images within 58 hours of operation in August 2020. The addition of these two satellites to the BlackSky constellation brings higher resolution and increased revisits for key customer markets around the world.
By flying at lower altitudes than other satellites in BlackSky’s constellation, these latest two satellites can produce images with resolution up to 80 cm — a 20 percent improvement over the existing satellites in the constellation.
The satellites have been delivering customer collections since that time while concurrently completing the commissioning process.
“The addition of our fifth and sixth satellites into our commercial constellation is an important step in our strategy to provide our customers with data that materially impacts their mission and business objectives,” said Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky. “We’ve always prioritized speed and utility so our customers experience incredible first-to-know insights. This campaign continues to execute on that commitment by delivering intelligence that can change outcomes.
The position of these satellites, at an inclination of 53 degrees, will allow additional revisits across all markets with heightened performance in Europe and Asia. These advances will unlock more analytic and data driven opportunities for BlackSky’s customers.
The BlackSky constellation now includes six satellites. The company is on track to add 10 more satellites to its constellation by the end of 2021.
