NRO Selects EarthDaily, ICEYE and Pixxel for Expanded Commercial Earth‑Observation Program

The National Reconnaissance Office on May 4 added EarthDaily, ICEYE and Pixxel to its Strategic Commercial Enhancements Commercial Solutions Opening, widening the U.S. intelligence agency’s access to commercial Earth-observation data across several sensor types. The awards expand the NRO’s “multi-phenomenology” capabilities, meaning it is buying from companies that collect different kinds of data rather than relying only on traditional imagery.

Under the new awards, EarthDaily was selected to provide daily global electro-optical and infrared coverage. ICEYE was chosen for radio-frequency capabilities, and the NRO said the company already provides synthetic aperture radar, or radar imagery, under an earlier award. Pixxel was selected for hyperspectral imaging, which captures information across many bands of light and can reveal details not visible in standard images.

The NRO, which builds and operates U.S. spy satellites, described the Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, as “a flexible, industry-aligned acquisition model” with a rolling five-year proposal window. The agency said that structure is meant to make it easier to work with a broader set of commercial providers, including startups and other nontraditional vendors, while speeding the delivery of operational capability. The NRO also said it expects additional awards later in 2026, budget permitting.

“These awards underscore the NRO’s commitment to leveraging the best of commercial innovation to stay ahead of emerging challenges,” Pete Muend, director of the NRO’s Commercial Systems Program Office, said in the agency’s press release.

The May 4 announcement builds on the first CSO awards, which the NRO said were announced Feb. 10. The agency said the CSO is intended to complement its existing Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcements, not replace them. Together, those procurement channels are part of a broader push to bring more commercial remote-sensing providers into government use across areas including optical imagery, radar, radio frequency and hyperspectral data.

That matters because the NRO is broadening beyond traditional commercial imagery suppliers and tapping companies that specialize in different sensing methods. For the intelligence community, that can mean access to a wider mix of commercially available data for analysis and operations.

Trade publication Via Satellite, citing Defense Daily, reported that each company received a $300,000 stage-one base contract for modeling and simulation, with a possible $900,000 stage-two option for products and ad hoc items. Those figures were not included in the NRO press release.

One point the May 4 release did not make: It did not announce a new three-tier cybersecurity classification system. Some earlier reporting has discussed prior NRO and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency work on tiered trust or cybersecurity approaches for commercial imagery, but that was not presented as a new policy in this announcement.