Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
H3 launches navigation satellite
WASHINGTON — A Japanese H3 rocket successfully launched a...
Chinese rocket carrying satellite explodes seconds after launch
Hong Kong —  A Chinese rocket set to launch a satellite...
NASA invites ISRO to join its ambitious Moon Base programme
India and the United States are set to strengthen...
India counters China’s map war: Names of 27 Arunachal Pradesh locations standardised on Survey of India maps
The official list covers 21 land locations, four mountain...
OMEGA and MBRSC launch exhibition celebrating UAE’s space milestones and Moon landing anniversary
OMEGA has partnered with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space...
SpaceX crash site on moon revealed by South Korean orbiter
An out-of-control SpaceX rocket that crashed into the moon...
ispace Receives Grant for Japan’s Space Strategy Fund Project “High-Precision Landing Technology in the Lunar Poles Region”
TOKYO—August 7, 2026—ispace, inc. (ispace) (TOKYO: 9348), a global...
Embry‑Riddle Asia Launches Professional Space Operations Course in Singapore Amid Regional Space Boom
As Singapore works to develop its involvement in the...
ISRO to map landslides in J&K using satellite to generate alerts
According to the government, geospatial technologies are being used...
Korea to Build 3D ‘New National Map’ Under Spatial Data Strategy
The Korean government will shift its spatial information system,...

July 15th, 2022
BlackSky Wins $4.4 Million IARPA Contract to Provide Advanced Artificial Intelligence for Space-Based Dynamic Monitoring

Company’s unique Spectra AI machine-learning platform accelerates application of SMART technologies for automated recognition of strategic activity and change

HERNDON, Va.- BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) received a $4.4 million award from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to support the second phase of the multi-year Space-based Machine Automated Recognition Technique (SMART) Program.

“As part of our work, BlackSky created a high-performance MLOps (machine learning operations) framework that was ultimately selected to perform as the core infrastructure to the entire SMART program,” said Patrick O’Neil, BlackSky chief innovation officer.

“The MLOps framework will extend BlackSky’s Spectra AI tasking and analytics capabilities and accelerate the development of SMART technologies that make quick sense of the immense volume and complexity of space-based image data,” O’Neil added.

The SMART program aims to automate the quantitative analysis of space-based imagery to perform broad-area searches for natural and man-made events using time-series imagery. Under the program BlackSky has developed both supervised and semi-supervised machine learning algorithms to automatically recognize heavy construction projects such as military bases, stadiums, campuses, dams, and airports.

About BlackSky

BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. BlackSky delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, monitoring and analytics of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events on Earth.