Albedo secures US Air Force contract for nighttime thermal infrared imaging
Denver, United States – Albedo, a company building a high resolution, low-flying satellite constellation, announced a government contract of [$1.25 million (€1.13 million)] to support the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The direct to phase 2 (D2P2) SBIR contract through AFWERX, an arm for the Department of the Air Force, will test and evaluate Albedo’s 2 metre GSD (ground sample distance) thermal infrared (TIR) imaging for nighttime conditions for the US government.
Albedo will natively co-collect the high-resolution commercial satellite imagery available in the visible (10 cm GSD) and thermal infrared (2 m GSD) spectrums. This is Albedo’s second D2P2 contract through AFWERX in under a year, increasing the company’s government contract total to [$2.5 million (€2.27 million)]. The previously awarded effort is evaluating how Albedo’s NIIRS 7 visible imagery and co-collected TIR imagery supports various government use cases by understanding system performance, mission effectiveness, and how to integrate their task-oriented constellation with government systems.
“Nighttime commercial imagery is currently limited to synthetic aperture radar,” says Joseph Rouge, U.S. Space Force deputy director, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. “High-resolution thermal infrared will provide a new commercial remote sensing solution for the U.S. Space Force.”
Under this contract, Albedo will characterise its night-time TIR imaging capabilities. This includes highly detailed lab characterisation of the flight sensor, validating of end-to-end radiometric and image quality predictions, and generation of high-fidelity simulated imagery from new high-resolution aerial imagery collected with the flight sensor. Albedo will also explore constellation capacity to provide this imagery and combining all of the findings to identify the most promising U.S. government use cases.
“We’re committed to accelerating the Air Force and Space Force’s ability to understand its performance against our problem sets and apply our capabilities on-orbit,” Rouge continues. “Nighttime thermal infrared imaging can help our intelligence analysts, warfighters, decision makers, and field operators solve complex emerging threats day and night.”
“Our thermal imagery continues to gain traction in defense and commercial markets – specifically the ability to extract meaningful intelligence from the combination of our visible and thermal imagery during day-time,” says Albedo CEO Topher Haddad. ”Now for the first time, we’re excited to showcase Albedo’s 24/7 temporal advantage of thermal imaging by working with USAF, USSF, and NASIC on this effort.”
NASIC’s principal intelligence analyst, Randall Bostick, emphasises the importance of partnering with commercial satellite imagery companies. “The intelligence community faces an increasing number of complex questions and issues that require innovative solutions for collecting and analysing data,” he says. “It is critical that we leverage advances in satellite technology to meet our evolving mission needs in the coming years.”
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