Capella Space announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The CRADA gives Capella access to NGA researchers for deeper insight into problems and in return NGA gains access to Capella Space’s SAR data and analytics services and signifies NGA’s first research partnership with an American commercial small satellite SAR data company, in an effort to expand its research capabilities.
The CRADA with Capella Space is part of the NGA’s broader Commercial GEONIT Strategy, first released October 2015 and later updated in September 2018. The NGA Commercial GEOINT Strategy provides a vision and plan for continually increasing collaboration with commercial GEOINT companies in order to meet rising customer demands for more timely and persistent imagery, analytics, and contextual information. As the first U.S. commercial SAR company and as an industry leader with an unparalleled SAR imaging platform, Capella Space is an ideal partner to facilitate the execution of the NGA’s plan. Capella will play a critical role in satisfying NGA’s mission to expand its production and publication of unclassified operations and intelligence.
“This is an exciting partnership that has the potential to yield new intelligence opportunities. Capella’s high temporal resolution SAR imagery will give intelligence professionals key insight and strategic advantage,” said Jarrett Adrian, NGA’s Principal Investigator for this CRADA.
The CRADA further strengthens Capella Space’s already-trusted relationship with United States government agencies. This past May, Capella Space signed a contract with the Department of Defense to provide on-demand, high-resolution SAR data and analytics for the U.S. Navy.
“We’re appreciative to NGA for its interest in our data and technology,” said Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella Space. “We look forward to better understanding users’ problems and demands through this partnership and being able to jointly develop cutting edge solutions for our U.S. government customers. With our satellite launch on the near horizon, this is an optimal time to initiate a collaborative, data-sharing relationship.