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Ibadan, 7 April, 2023. – ICEYE US Inc., a subsidiary of ICEYE, has announced a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with NASA. The contract is a five-year agreement for the purchase of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data for evaluation to determine their suitability for advancing NASA’s science and application goals. Since 2020, NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program has been identifying, evaluating, and acquiring data from commercial sources aligned with NASA’s Earth Science Division objectives.
Eric Jensen, CEO of ICEYE US, speaking on the partnership, said, “It’s our privilege to support NASA’s objectives related to advancing Earth Science with commercial data sources. We are glad that researchers at NASA centers across the country will gain access to the reliable data stream from our constellation of small radar satellites and, in doing so, demonstrate the value of commercial SAR for the Scientific community.”
Likewise, Will McCarty, NASA CSDA Program Scientist, added, “NASA is glad to evaluate ICEYE data in the context of our Earth Science Research, Analysis, and Applications portfolios. With the advent of SAR from commercial sources like ICEYE, we want to know how these small satellite constellations can complement existing NASA datasets and capabilities. Ultimately, we aim to utilize these data to provide new perspectives to the science priorities of the Earth Science Division.”
Unlike traditional Earth observation satellites, SAR satellites can collect high-value datasets of areas of the Earth in daylight, at night, and through cloud cover. SAR data from the ICEYE constellation can be produced over wide areas, such as glacial regions or coastlines, with frequent revisits to optimize scientific value and support novel research applications.
