The research laboratory of the US Air Force signed a contract with the BlackSky company worth up to 99 million dollars for the development of a special optical payload, intended for future space reconnaissance systems.
For reference: BlackSky is an American company, engaged in satellite imaging of the Earth: builds and operates surveillance satellites and sells imagery-based analytics.
The contract is a research and innovation agreement for small businesses (SBIR), phase 3, of the "indefinite number of deliveries" type, which will be valid until 2032 year. Under the terms of the contract, the company will develop and test a large-aperture optical imaging system, built on the segmented mirror architecture. Segmented optical systems use multiple mirror panels, which deploy and align in orbit, forming a single large telescope. This makes it possible to support large-scale surveillance missions, enabling satellites to scan large geographic regions, while identifying relatively small objects, such as vehicles, ships, aircraft or moving equipment.
BlackSky has previously announced plans to expand into large-scale satellite surveillance. The company reported last year, that plans to develop a new type of Earth observation satellite called Aros, designed for shooting large areas: mapping at the country level and monitoring of marine water areas. The launch of this satellite is scheduled for 2027 year. Such a device will complement the current BlackSky lineup, which is focused on high-frequency monitoring of specific objects. In this architecture, a wide coverage satellite will scan large regions, detect changes or points of interest, will then direct higher-resolution satellites for detailed imaging. A similar architecture can be used, example, to detect and track missiles.
Source: https://spacenews.com