The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has chosen seven companies to provide commercial data in support of the agency’s Earth science research.

The Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program will reportedly acquire Earth observation data and related services from commercial sources for NASA.

Source: NASA

The following companies were selected as part of this full and open competition:

• Airbus DS Geo, Inc. of Herndon, Virginia
• Capella Space Corp. of San Francisco, California
• GHGSat, Inc. of Montreal, Canada
• Maxar Intelligence, Inc. of Westminster, Colorado
• Space Sciences and Engineering (dba PlanetiQ) of Golden, Colorado
• Spire Global Subsidiary, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia
• Umbra Lab, Inc., of Santa Barbara, California

The contract serves as a flexible method for NASA to acquire data from commercial sources that support NASA’s Earth science research and application activities. An emphasis will be placed on data acquired by commercial satellite constellations, complementing NASA’s Earth observations data with higher resolutions, increased temporal frequency or other novel capabilities.

NASA reports that the contract will offer a cost-effective means to complement the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA and other U.S. government agencies, as well as international partners and agencies. NASA will require end user license agreements to enable broad levels of dissemination and shareability of the commercial data. There is a set of government-defined license tiers associated with all contracts and task orders awarded for scientific non-commercial use.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit the NASA website.