NASA is to invest increasing amounts of its attention and money in developing small satellite projects. The agency has already spent more than $900 million on the space shuttle program, which ended last year. “By the way, if we only do the flagships … two things happen. The focus on satellite projects will also involve letting a number of contracts to purchase imagery and data from three commercial satellite companies – Planet, DigitalGlobe and Spire – and will also be offering "rideshare" opportunities for companies to launch payloads from NASA missions.
NASA is to invest increasing amounts of its attention and money in developing small satellite projects. The agency has already spent more than $900 million on the space shuttle program, which ended last year. The focus on satellite projects will also involve letting a number of contracts to purchase imagery and data from three commercial satellite companies – Planet, DigitalGlobe and Spire – and will also be offering "rideshare" opportunities for companies to launch payloads from NASA missions.