Image courtesy BlackSky

There was a time not too long ago, says Amy Minnick (MBA 2000), when only governments and the military had the hardware and human resources necessary to acquire and interpret satellite imagery.

But times have changed: BlackSky, the geospatial analytics and imaging company where Minnick serves as chief commercial officer, is one of several actors in the so-called “new space” sector that are pursuing commercial opportunities beyond our atmosphere. Long a provider of real-time geospatial intelligence to government and military clients, BlackSky now employs a network of custom-built satellites and a proprietary analytics platform to gather and analyze satellite images for commercial customers.

Image by Lincoln Agnew

Image by Lincoln Agnew

Minnick credits several technological advances with putting space-based reconnaissance within reach of private enterprises. The small commercial satellites deployed by BlackSky can be built relatively cheaply and quickly. They can hitch rides on rockets operated by companies such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab, much like passengers piling into a shared Uber. And once aloft, the images they capture can be interpreted by machine-learning algorithms running on massive on-demand cloud-computing platforms like Amazon Web Services.

At the same time, a trifecta of trends—namely, the widespread reliance on just-in-time inventory management; the ongoing supply-chain paroxysms wrought by the pandemic; and the slow-motion train wreck of climate change, with its attendant rise in extreme (and extremely disruptive) weather—has whetted the commercial sector’s appetite for worldwide data and analytics.

“That combination of things means that the world really does need real-time global intelligence,” says Minnick, who came to BlackSky after analyzing supply chains and integrating geospatial intelligence with AI-driven analysis at companies such as IHS Markit, DigitalGlobe, and CAPE Analytics.

With satellites scoping the same terrestrial locations up to 15 times a day, BlackSky’s Spectra AI analytics platform can tell a commodities firm whether a vessel carrying vital goods has left port or show an insurance company the damage a tornado has left in its wake. Customers access the BlackSky constellation through an online portal that allows them to image locations around the world—a port in Australia, a car factory in Beijing—simply by dropping a pin onto a map. Because the company’s satellites fly over the same sites multiple times a day, customers can monitor evolving situations over time, such as tracking tug boats as they haul barges laden with cargo down a river in the United States or measuring the growth of an ore stockpile destined to supply steel plants in China.

Spectra AI is even smart enough to analyze news and sensor feeds for events that may be of interest to customers (earthquakes, fires, conflicts at key border crossings) and to autonomously instruct the constellation to monitor them in a process known as “tipping and cueing.” The platform’s algorithms can interpret the radio identification signals emitted by ships; recognize objects such as aircrafts, vessels, and buildings; and translate a visual image (e.g., a pile of black rocks) into a number on a spreadsheet (e.g., tons of coal ready for shipment). And because they run not only on BlackSky’s terrestrial computers but also on the satellites themselves, analysis can begin immediately, allowing customers to receive decision-useful information within 90 minutes of placing a request.

“We’re building toward actual real-time capabilities,” Minnick says.

Giving private companies the ability to monitor virtually any spot on Earth might make some people nervous. But beyond helping solve supply-chain issues, Minnick and her team can help businesses mitigate disasters; and they can provide data to first responders as well, sharing imagery of unfolding events such as fires and floods on social media channels through BlackSky’s “first-to-know” program. As Minnick points out, satellites can set eyes on disaster sites that are unsafe for people to visit or even fly over, and she hopes to expand the company’s outreach to nonprofits and NGOs to help them streamline emergency response operations.

There have been hiccups. Last May, BlackSky lost two satellites when the rocket that was carrying them came crashing back to Earth. “Space is hard. Launches are delayed and, in the worst case, things blow up,” Minnick says.

But because the company controls the satellite manufacturing portion of its own supply chain, it was able to replace those lost units within a matter of months. It placed two more satellites into orbit in April of this year, bringing the total constellation to 14.

Now that BlackSky’s analytics and constellation platform are largely in place, Minnick is focused on refining and marketing the firm’s commercial products and services. And while she can’t disclose specific customer figures, she says that the commercial business is growing rapidly—which seems hardly surprising, given supply-chain issues in recent years.

“The product pretty quickly sells itself,” she says.

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