NGA Awards $214.2M to GeoEye for Commercial Satellite Imagery
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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a US Department of Defense combat support agency, awarded GeoEye (formerly Orbimage) in Dulles, VA a $214.2 million firm-fixed-price contract modification to supply satellite imagery to US government customers from the company’s satellite constellation.
Under the modification, the basic contract service level agreement (SLA) will be extended 4-month through Mar 31/10 ($50 million SLA value, $51.7 million miscellaneous), followed by one 9-month option (April 2010 to December 2010, $112.5 million). Work will be performed in Dulles, VA.
GeoEye’s predecessor Orbimage received the original NextView contract (HM1573-04-C-0014), worth up to $500 million, in 2004…
According to NGA, the NextView contract helps assure the availability of high-resolution imagery from US commercial imagery satellites and also furthers the partnership between the US government and the US satellite imagery industry. In addition, the agreement affords greater access and priority to US government customers.
NGA also awarded NextView contracts to DigitalGlobe in Longmont, CO, and Space Imaging of Thornton, CO. However, Space Imaging was purchased by Orbimage, and the combined company was renamed GeoEye.
In addition to providing satellite imagery to the US government, the NextView contracts were designed to keep the commercial satellite industry afloat, fund development of next-generation imagery satellites, and avoid a potential gap in the availability of commercial imagery for the US military.
