NRO Awards First CSO Deals to HEO, SatVu and Sierra Nevada for Commercial ISR
The revolving five-year solicitation lets the agency trial multi-phenomenology data from private satellites before committing to larger purchases.
Overview
- The Strategic Commercial Enhancements agreements will test on-orbit inspection imagery from HEO, medium-wave infrared thermal data from SatVu, and radio-frequency geolocation from Sierra Nevada Corporation.
- Officials said the Commercial Solutions Opening remains open for more than four years and invites unsolicited proposals from additional commercial providers.
- The evaluation process begins with modeling and simulation and proceeds to on-orbit assessments to gauge performance, utility and scalability for potential operational use.
- Subject to available funding, the NRO expects to make additional multi-phenomenology awards later in 2026.
- Each initial award is valued at about $300,000, according to an NRO spokesperson.