WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has extended its contract with thermal imagery startup Hydrosat under the Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) program, the company announced July 21. The new agreement grants the agency access to data from Hydrosat’s first two satellite missions.
Hydrosat, founded in 2017 and based in Washington, D.C., said the deal moves its engagement with the NRO into a second phase, shifting from modeling and simulation activities to on-orbit assessments and operational data delivery.
“This award grants the agency access to Hydrosat’s latest thermal infrared data,” the company said in a statement.
The company’s satellites — VanZyl-1 and VanZyl-2 — are designed to detect minute temperature variations on the Earth’s surface. The data is used for agriculture, climate and environmental monitoring. These readings can be used by defense agencies for nighttime ship tracking, monitoring industrial activity, and identifying construction of new infrastructure, said Hydrosat CEO Pieter Fossel.
Hydrosat’s satellites have thermal, visible and near-infrared sensors all collocated on the same platform.
Launched in August 2024 aboard a SpaceX Transporter-11 rideshare mission, VanZyl-1 is operated in partnership with Loft Orbital. The follow-up satellite, VanZyl-2, launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 and is operated with Muon Space. Both missions are named after Hydrosat’s late co-founder Jakob van Zyl, a former associate director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The NRO’s SCE program, launched in 2021, aims to rapidly integrate emerging commercial space technologies into the U.S. intelligence and defense ecosystems. Hydrosat was among several firms awarded two-year contracts in December 2023, as the agency looks to expand its use of commercial space data alongside its national assets.