BlackSky’s two new satellites delivered their first insights less than 12 hours after launch. Credit: BlackSky.

Two new BlackSky high-resolution geospatial satellites were launched on April 3, expanding the company’s constellation from 12 to 14.

The pair of BlackSky Gen-2 satellites were delivered to a circular 430-km-altitude orbit by Rocket Lab rocket launched from New Zealand.

Amazingly, the satellites began revenue-generating commercial operations for customers within 12 hours following the launch, a company record.

BlackSky combines high-frequency monitoring with its software platform, Spectra AI, to deliver real-time alerts, data and information to decision-makers.

“Our world needs real-time geospatial intelligence now more than ever,” said Nick Merski, BlackSky chief operations officer.

“The rapid integration of these two satellites into commercial operations immediately boosts the capacity of our constellation and the frequency of hourly revisits for our customers that need real-time insights.”

The expansion of its constellation improves BlackSky’s daily dawn-to-dusk site monitoring and increases the frequency at which the company can image and analyse a particular site with an average daily revisit rate of 8 to 10 times per day in most locations in the world.

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