White House Pledges $50 Million in Smallsat Spending

The Obama administration is pledging $50 million toward small satellite technology development. A White House news release Thursday said NASA will put $30 million toward "public-private partnership opportunities" aimed at earth observations being provided by commercial smallsats, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency just signed a $20 million data purchase agreement with smallsat startup Planet to buy earth observation imagery. The spending was announced as part of the daylong White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, with a focus on various technologies.