Sidus Space, Inc. announced it has been awarded a Stage I Contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) with a Focus Area in Commercial Hyperspectral Capabilities. This Stage I contract was awarded in response to a two-phase competitive proposal effort and is the first of three potential and sequential awards. A Stage I contract is typically 6-18 months and is considered a study stage providing awardees an opportunity to submit a proposal for a follow-on Stage II contract.

Stage II is focused on product integration into the NRO enterprise architecture, full performance assessments, and potential technology insertion and Stage III includes demonstrating commercial capability up to full performance by integrating and onboarding into the enterprise architecture and potential technology insertion. During Stage I period of performance, Sidus Space will utilize modeling and simulation techniques to demonstrate thatSidus' Lizziesat is capable of collecting Hyperspectral Imaging data of value to the NRO. Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum.

The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to obtain the spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene, with the purpose of finding objects, identifying materials, or detecting processes. Hyperspectral imaging divides the spectrum into many more bands beyond the visible spectrum. Sidus plans to utilize the hyperspectral sensors and processing systems for applications in astronomy, agriculture, molecular biology, biomedical imaging, geosciences, physics, and surveillance.