National Reconnaissance Office Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Release #11-23

Contact: 703-808-1198 | media@nro.mil Dec. 5, 2023

NRO Awards Commercial Electro-Optical Capabilities Contracts

CHANTILLY, Va. – The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) today announced the 

award of five Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) contracts to assess and 

leverage commercial electro-optical (EO) capabilities. Companies receiving awards 

under NRO’s SCE Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Framework include Airbus U.S. 

Space and Defense, Albedo Space, Hydrosat, Muon Space, and Turion Space.

"The commercial EO market continues to expand with new capabilities and new 

providers,” said NRO Director Dr. Chris Scolese. “We are excited to continue our work 

with mission partners and the user community to continually explore new providers and 

emerging capabilities so we can deliver first-class commercial EO solutions today and

well into the future.”

In May 2022, NRO established the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract 

with awards to BlackSky, Maxar, and Planet Labs. EOCL is the largest commercial 

imagery contract effort ever awarded by NRO and is an operational subscription-type 

contract based on validated Intelligence Community and Department of Defense 

requirements. Comparatively, these SCE BAA commercial EO capabilities contracts 

are smaller in scope, are designed to assess emerging providers and capabilities, and 

intended to leverage those capabilities to meet mission needs. 

These assessments are completed through a two-stage effort. The first stage focuses on 

analytic studies to provide estimates of system capabilities at both the individual sensor 

and constellation levels, as well as business and cybersecurity planning. The second stage 

focuses on assessing on-orbit capabilities and procuring data products.

“Combined with EOCL and our previous SCE radar, radio frequency, and hyperspectral 

imaging contracts, these contracts continue NRO’s historic expansion of the acquisition 

of commercial data,” said Pete Muend, director of the NRO’s commercial systems 

program office. “It also continues to demonstrate our commitment to meet increasing 

customer demands with greater commercial capacity than ever before.” 

These awards follow six SCE contracts for commercial hyperspectral imaging awarded in 

March 2023, six commercial radio frequency remote sensing contracts awarded in 

September 2022, and five commercial radar contracts in January 2022. 
The SCE BAAs build on NRO’s earlier successful contracts. They create additional 

opportunities to expand NRO’s commitment to rapid acquisition and commercial spacebased data integration. 

Learn more at NRO.gov

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NRO is the leader in developing, acquiring, launching, and operating the nation’s 

intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites to secure and expand America’s 

advantage in space. We are building a diversified and resilient architecture of spacecraft 

and ground systems designed to meet the challenges of a changing space environment by 

accelerating innovation and leveraging strategic partnerships, backed by a diverse and 

highly skilled workforce. At NRO, we See It, Hear It, Sense It so our nation’s warfighters 

and policymakers have decision advantage amid increasing global competition. Learn 

more at NRO.gov.