Capella Space awarded multi-year blanket purchase agreement by NASA

Capella Space awarded multi-year blanket purchase agreement by NASA
by Staff Writers
San Francisco CA (SPX) Jun 09, 2023

Capella Space, an American space tech company and the world's leading provider of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for a wide range of government, commercial and scientific applications, has been awarded a five year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) by NASA's Earth Science Division for the purchase of its high resolution SAR imagery and data for evaluation to determine their suitability for advancing NASA's science and application goals.

Under this sole-source agreement, NASA will have access to Capella's commercial SAR image products, which range from 0.5 to 1.2 meter ground resolution and represent one of the highest resolution imagery capabilities offered by any SAR provider. The agreement will facilitate fixed price call-off contracts valued up to $7 million per call, effective for five years from the date of the agreement.

This BPA is funded by the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in support of NASA's Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program. Imagery procured under this agreement will provide NASA's Earth Science Division with additional perspective for scientific research of Earth's interconnected systems, enhancing existing NASA datasets.

"As the first operator of an American commercial SAR constellation, we are thrilled to support NASA's research efforts," said Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella Space. "The BPA Framework allows NASA's Earth Science Division to take advantage of our growing constellation of commercial SAR satellites across a wide diversity of orbits. We look forward to supporting this highly valuable scientific research effort."

"NASA is excited for the opportunity to evaluate high resolution SAR data from Capella Space in the context of our Earth Science research, analysis and applications portfolios," said Dr. Will McCarty, NASA CSDA Program Scientist. "With the advent of SAR from commercial sources like Capella Space, we are interested how these small satellite constellations can supplement our existing NASA datasets and capabilities. Ultimately, we aim to leverage these data to provide new perspectives on the scientific priorities of the Earth Science Division."

This award builds on the strong partnerships Capella Space has developed with other US government agencies including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Space Force.