BlackSky Technology, a real-time, space-based intelligence company that delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, analytics, and high-frequency monitoring of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events in the world, has delivered its first AI-enabled analytics derived from new, very high-resolution imagery captured by the company’s first Gen-3 satellite three weeks after its successful February 18 launch. The significant milestone demonstrates how BlackSky’s AI-automated detection and identification algorithms accurately transform Gen-3’s fine-detailed imagery into actionable, precision insights at machine speed and scale over tactical objects of interest.
“BlackSky's first Gen-3 satellite has continued to exceed on-orbit performance expectations, accelerating a path toward fine-tuning our advanced, propriety AI-enabled analytics capabilities within just weeks of launch,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “Gen-3 imagery will enable the delivery of extraordinarily detailed and accurate real-time automated analytics seamlessly into our customers’ workflow.”
“This powerful combination coupled with our high-frequency, time-diverse, low-latency monitoring constellation will help decision makers see an expansive, diverse set of mission-relevant details more clearly and reduce the speed of analyses over large volumes of imagery from days to minutes,” said O’Toole.
BlackSky’s AI is designed to enable the automatic detection, identification and classification of a wide library of vehicles, aircraft, vessels and other objects of tactical interest with industry-leading precision. The model is designed to recognize and discern differences, for example, between box trucks and tractor-trailers, and smaller vehicles such as pickups, jeeps, vans or cars. In addition to larger vessels like warships, merchant or container ships, the model is designed to detect and classify smaller vessels such as tugboats, patrol or commercial boats.
“BlackSky's adaptable in-house AI model works with a very high degree of transferability across Gen-2, Gen-3 and external commercial imagery sources supporting multi-intelligence data fusion activities,” said O’Toole. “BlackSky’s AI-enabled analytics enhance operational efficiency and give analysts the ability to quickly and efficiently extract a new level of valuable insights from vast amounts of imagery, detecting patterns, anomalies, and changes without requiring extensive manual review.”
With BlackSky's first Gen-3 satellite now on orbit, the company expects to expand the constellation to eight satellites within 12 months. These new satellites will generate 35-centimeter imagery and integrate seamlessly into our existing constellation, global ground network and BlackSky Spectra software platform, enhancing the value of their current Gen-2 dawn-to-dusk dynamic monitoring services. Adding additional Gen-3 satellites is expected to increase their revisit rates, reduce delivery latency, enhance our image quality and capacity, and unlock new customer applications.
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