Spy agency awards ‘historic’ contracts to commercial satellite firms

The National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. intelligence agency that operates the nation’s spy satellites, announced that it is awarding billions of dollars in contracts over the next decade to three commercial satellite companies that take photos of Earth.

In a statement, the NRO said it was the “largest-ever commercial imagery contract effort” and that it represented “a historic expansion of the NRO’s acquisition of commercial imagery to meet increasing customer demands with greater capacity than ever before.”