BlackSky Gen-3 image collected July 20, 2026 over the Farnborough International Airshow shows a plane mid-flight as it casts a shadow on the ground. Through AI-enabled detection, BlackSky identified 22,258 vehicles and 86 aircraft. Credit: BlackSky
SAN FRANCISCO — BlackSky announced Aug. 11 a seven-figure, multiyear contract to provide an international customer with persistent space-based monitoring and on-demand satellite tasking.
Prior to the award, BlackSky conducted a pilot with the unnamed international customer. That customer then signed up for low-latency access to imagery of its regional area of operations from the company’s Gen-2 and Gen-3 constellations paired with artificial intelligence-enabled analytics. Through an on-demand subscription, the customer will order observations of other regions of the world.
BlackSky’s Gen-2 constellation, launched in 2021, is designed for dawn-to-dusk monitoring. Gen-3 satellites, which the Herndon, Virginia-based company started launching in 2025, provide higher-resolution imaging “that enables automated identification and classification of a wider library of vehicles, aircraft, vessels and other objects of military interest,” according to the news release.
