ICEYE to Supply NASA with Critical Radar Imagery for Earth Research

ICEYE US Inc., a branch of ICEYE, a world leader in continuous Earth monitoring using radar satellite imaging, has been awarded a multi-year contract to perform tasks under NASA’s SmallSat commercial data collection programme.

ICEYE US Selected by NASA to Provide Radar Satellite Imagery

The company posted a press release announcing the award on its official website on 9 September.

Although the contract details were not disclosed, it is known that this 5-year fixed-price contract is a continuation of ICEYE’s supply of data to NASA’s CSDA programme under a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) that the parties entered last year.

The contract is funded by the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division. It will enable NASA to acquire ICEYE synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for evaluation by the scientific and academic communities to determine suitability to meet NASA’s Earth Science research goals.

The Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Programme (CSDA) has existed since 2020. It is designed to identify, evaluate, and acquire data from commercial sources to support scientific research, which is part of NASA’s Earth Science Division goals.

This year, NASA selected eight companies to collaborate on this initiative

This work is part of the On-Ramp1 Multiple Award contract, which includes a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity structure. The total potential value across all contractors is $476 million, and the performance period will run until 15 November 2028.

The eight companies selected include:

• BlackSky Geospatial Solutions, Inc. (Herndon, Virginia)
• ICEYE US Inc. (Irvine, Calif.)
• MDA Geospatial Service Inc. (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada)
• Pixxel Space Technologies, Inc. (El Segundo, California)
• Planet Labs Federal, Inc. (Arlington, Virginia)
• Satellogic Federal, LLC (Davidson, North Carolina)
• Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. (Huntsville, Alabama)
• The Tomorrow Companies Inc. (Boston, Massachusetts).

‘NASA’s Earth science goals are invaluable to studying and protecting our planet. We remain grateful for the opportunity to continue to support NASA’s mission with our data,’ said Eric Jensen, CEO of ICEYE US.

As part of the contract, NASA gains access to data from the radar imaging constellation and ICEYE’s archive of tens of thousands of images.

The satellites are designed to produce reliable images with very short revisit times, allowing rapid changes on the Earth’s surface to be detected and monitored. ICEYE data are a constant source of information for important geology, topography and climate change research, among other areas. They can be used in various applications, such as monitoring sea ice changes for marine and environmental use, monitoring icebergs and floods, and tracking oil spills at sea.