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BlackSky Technology won a one-year extension with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) for the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract for its satellite imagery. BlackSky announced the extension on Jan. 14, reporting it came one year ahead of schedule.

With this extension, BlackSky said it will add “enhanced ground architecture features to improve image searchability and utility and provide more timely notice of intended collection status.”

“Our customer’s early commitment represents continued confidence in BlackSky as a trusted mission partner as the NRO makes additional strides in leveraging commercial space technology to strengthen national security with a seamless path toward integrating our future Gen-3 capabilities,” said BlackSky CEO Brian O’Toole.

Under the five-year contract, known as Luno B, these vendors will compete for task orders to provide commercial satellite imagery analysis and insights. With this procurement, NGA is reducing its traditional reliance on classified data processed in secure facilities.

The contract follows a $290 million Luno A procurement announced in September, and represents the intelligence community’s growing embrace of commercial space technology.

The 13 selected vendors are: Airbus U.S. Space & Defense; BAE Systems; Booz Allen Hamilton; BlackSky; BlueHalo; CACI; Deloitte; Electromagnetic Systems; Maxar Intelligence; NV5 Geospatial; Planet Labs; Royce Geospatial; and Ursa Space Systems.

BlackSky has won multiple contracts for its analytics services through a new pilot program from the U.S. Space Force’s Global Data Marketplace (GDM), the company announced Friday.

The Global Data Marketplace is part of Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Program (TacSRT), a pilot program that has been in operation for a year to get commercial data analytics in the hands of combatant commands. According to the Space Force, the GDM is an online interface where TacSRT can advertise, award, and fund short-term surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking contracts with commercial vendors.

“One year in operation, this novel marketplace increases speed and accessibility to BlackSky’s reliable high-cadence, low-latency dynamic monitoring capabilities,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “BlackSky’s momentum with these quick-turn contracts represents a significant structural demand signal from a key customer for operationally relevant space-based products.”

Newly captured satellite imagery seems to show the Russians moving military equipment out of a strategic airbase in Syria as its long-standing presence in the country remains in limbo.

The images, captured by BlackSky and obtained by Business Insider, show new activity at the Hmeimim Air Base over the past few days and suggest that Russia is scaling down its military footprint in Syria following the shocking collapse of the Assad government earlier this month.

Russia’s warships have been missing from its base in Syria in the days after rebel forces ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Bashar Assad, satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows.

It’s unclear whether the Russian warships have left for good. A December 1 image shows several warships docked in Tartus, but two days later, they were no longer there. By Friday, some warships — including two surface combatants and a submarine — were back. But three days later, they were gone once again.

The vessels remained away from their berths as of Tuesday, according to a new satellite image taken by BlackSky.

A separate image captured on Thursday by BlackSky, which provides space-based real-time intelligence, showed that the original six vessels docked at Tartus at the start of the month returned. This suggests Russia may have gradually moved its assets away from the port as Assad’s government crumbled.

Satellite imagery show that Russian naval ships have left Moscow’s base at Tartous on Syria’s coast and some have dropped anchor offshore following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by rebel forces.
Previously, Russia had five surface ships and one submarine at Tartous, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by BlackSky and Planet Labs. An image taken on Dec. 5 by BlackSky showed all six vessels at the base.

A container ship that Iran has spent the past few years turning into a militarized drone carrier has left its home port for the first time, recent satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows. In an image captured on November 12 by BlackSky, which provides space-based real-time intelligence, the new Shahid Bagheri can be seen at an Iranian shipyard along the Persian Gulf. But an image captured a little more than two weeks later, on November 28, shows the Bagheri missing from its berth at the Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex, just west of the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Satellite imagery of a key Russian naval base along the Black Sea has revealed strange behavior, specifically dozens of military vessels dispersing from the facility, only to return a little later.

The images, collected by BlackSky in September and obtained by Business Insider, show Russia either partially or completely dispersing its naval vessels from the port of Novorossiysk for brief periods on three separate occasions that month.

North Korea’s constitution now officially defines South Korea as a “hostile state”, marking the first time the regime declared legal changes dictated by Kim Jong-un, according to state media. North Korea’s defence ministry said they have destroyed up to 60m-long sections of two pairs of roads and railway routes, one pair on the western portion of the inter-Korean border and the other on the eastern side. A satellite image (supplied by BlackSky) captured on 16 October at 11.08 am local time shows damage to one of the roads on the Demilitarized Zone border of Kaesong, North Korea.

Business Insider obtained the satellite image from BlackSky, a real-time, space-based intelligence company. It shows the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Liaoning and Shandong carriers docked at the same pier at Sanya Naval Base on Hainan Island, just east of Vietnam.