What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2024-03-20 compared with 2023-03-23 · 94 added, 86 removed, 135 unchanged (57% of the section changed)

Founded in 2014, BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence.

We deliver on-demand, high frequency imagery, monitoring and analytics of some of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events in the world.

We design, own, and operate one of the industry’s leading low earth orbit (“LEO”) small satellite (“smallsat” or “smallsats”) constellations, optimized to capture imagery cost-efficiently where and when our customers need it.

Our Spectra AI software platform processes data from BlackSky's constellation and from other third-party sensors to develop the critical insights and analytics that provide our customers with the actionable intelligence they require to execute on important decisions.

government, allied nations, commercial businesses, and organizations around the world rely on our products.

Our vision is to define a new category of space-based products and services:

real-time geospatial and analytics driven intelligence delivered through an easy-to-use platform designed to empower a variety of customers to make decisions.

In the last few years, the market has been shifting away from static, low-frequency satellite imagery and geospatial solutions toward dynamic and on-demand, high-frequency imagery and advanced analytics that together deliver real-time geospatial intelligence.

During this time, we have seen the number of commercial sensors on orbit expand from a handful of large, expensive commercial satellites to now hundreds and soon to be thousands of space-based sensors that are changing the way we see and understand our world.

To capitalize on this paradigm shift, BlackSky has deployed a proprietary satellite constellation providing high-frequency, high-resolution imagery and built a fully operational software platform capable of integrating our proprietary data with the data from this proliferation of sensors and other third-party information, such as millions of GPS-enabled terrestrial data sources and Internet of Things ("IOT") connected devices.

Our proprietary software platform, Spectra AI, then applies artificial intelligence ("AI") and machine learning ("ML") techniques to transform these raw data feeds into real-time actionable intelligence that provides customers with a first-to-know advantage.

Our mission is to enable customers to improve their decision-making processes by incorporating on-demand imagery and AI-driven analytics into their daily operations through our modern, easy-to-use, software-as-a-service ("SaaS") customer experience.

Founded in 2014, BlackSky Technology Inc.

(herein referred to as “BlackSky,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a space-based intelligence company that delivers real-time imagery, analytics and high-frequency monitoring of the world’s most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events.

BlackSky® is trusted by many of the most demanding U.S.

and international government agencies and commercial businesses around the world.

We are defining a new category of space-based intelligence products and services with real-time imagery and automated analytics, delivered through an easy-to-use interface coupled with our high-revisit and low latency satellite constellation both designed to help customers see, understand and anticipate change for a decisive strategic advantage.

BlackSky can image many of the most strategic locations on Earth up to 15 times per day, many traditional Earth observation companies image twice per day.

BlackSky designs, owns and operates the industry’s most advanced, purpose-built commercial, real-time intelligence system that combines the power of the BlackSky Spectra tasking and analytics software platform and our proprietary high resolution, low earth orbit ("LEO") small satellite (“smallsat” or “smallsats”) constellation.

BlackSky Spectra is a first-of-its-kind commercial platform that helps customers manage their monitoring activities from space at industry-leading speed, frequency, and economics.

The BlackSky constellation is the primary sensor and communications architecture that delivers space-based data to BlackSky Spectra.

BlackSky’s satellites fly in unconventional, inclined orbits, and with built-in automated systems, the constellation can distinctly deliver time-diverse, dawn-to-dusk, rapid revisit imagery, and analytics with no humans in the loop.

Customers experience the value of BlackSky’s capabilities in the On-Demand and Assured service and product offerings.

BlackSky Spectra augments proprietary data collected from our constellations with input from third-party sensors.

The Changing Geospatial Market

The market is shifting away from static, low-frequency satellite imagery and geospatial mapping solutions toward dynamic and on-demand, high-frequency imagery and advanced analytics that together deliver real-time space-based intelligence.

The commercial sensors on orbit expand from a handful of large, expensive commercial satellites to now hundreds and soon to be thousands of space-based sensors that are changing the way we see and understand our world.

To capitalize on this paradigm shift, BlackSky deployed a proprietary satellite constellation providing high-frequency, high-resolution imagery and built a fully operational software platform capable of integrating our proprietary data with the data from this proliferation of sensors and other third-party information, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and radio frequency data from partners, millions of GPS-enabled terrestrial data sources and Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices.

Our proprietary software platform, BlackSky Spectra, then applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to transform these raw data feeds into real-time actionable intelligence.

BlackSky helps customers improve their decision-making processes by incorporating on-demand imagery and AI-driven analytics into their daily operations through our modern, easy-to-use, software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer experience.

We can deliver our proprietary, on-demand imagery at a lower cost than legacy providers due to our scalable software platform, our capital efficient constellation design, and adaptable pricing models, among other things.

BlackSky’s commercial SaaS approach also gives customers the ability to quickly activate custom, space-based intelligence capabilities with minimal established infrastructure or geospatial knowledge base.

Our Vertically Integrated Strategic Assets

The need for real-time geospatial intelligence is more important than ever.

Recent global events, like the war in Ukraine or the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, have demonstrated what customers can expect from the real-time geospatial intelligence that space-based technology can deliver.

The need for real-time space-based intelligence is now more important than ever.

Recent global events, like the ongoing conflicts in Israel, Sudan and Ukraine and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, have reinforced the value of real-time, space-based intelligence.

BlackSky is changing the way space is used to deliver vital, actionable intelligence through our two key strategic assets:

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Our Satellite Constellation

We design, develop, manufacture, and operate a constellation of proprietary high-resolution, high-revisit LEO smallsats.

Our constellation is optimized to provide reliable and dynamic hourly monitoring of among the most strategic, high-value locations and assets where we believe approximately 90% of the world's gross domestic product occurs.

Our current constellation images most locations between the latitudes of 55 degrees North and 55 degrees South, on-demand, providing our customers with insights and situational awareness throughout the day and as events unfold.

Historically BlackSky imagery was available from dawn to dusk;

recently we have introduced a night-time monitoring capability.

Our satellites have agile pointing capabilities that enable our customers to task our constellation on-demand to collect specific locations of interest.

We believe that the focus of our constellation on critical, strategic, and economic infrastructure and software that enables customer tasking of our constellation differentiates us from our competitors, who are dedicated primarily to mapping the entirety of the Earth on a routine basis and who, therefore, require a larger or more expensive constellation to support their mission.

BlackSky's unique architecture delivers highly valued imagery and intelligence with a smaller, more capital efficient, and agile constellation.

In 2022, we achieved a baseline satellite constellation of 14 LEO smallsats that are currently in operation.

In the first half of 2023, we plan to launch two additional satellites to primarily replace the two initial satellites that were deployed in 2018, which have been in operation for more than four years and are approaching their end of life.

As the majority of our constellation was launched within the past 18 months, we believe we have sufficient capacity to meet existing customer requirements and support our customer's needs in the future.

Under optimal conditions and measured from dawn until dusk, our constellation achieves a peak revisit rate of up to 15 revisits a day and an average revisit rate of eight to ten revisits a day or approximately every 60-90 minutes, which allows us to collect thousands of images a day.

As our satellite constellation grows, we expect our revisit rate to improve, thereby increasing the amount of data we are able to collect and providing incremental utility to customers.

Our current satellites ("Gen-2") are purpose-built to serve our mission and form the foundation of our Spectra AI platform.

Weighing about 55 kilograms each, these compact, high-tech satellites are comparable in size to a miniature refrigerator.

Each satellite is equipped with a modern, commercially-derived optical telescope that collects imagery with a resolution between 80-100 centimeters.

Launched into a Low Earth Orbit approximately 450 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, our constellation is optimally distributed to provide maximum coverage for our customers.

We have strategically located our ground stations around the world to further accelerate our delivery capabilities.

Our satellite design is further complemented by our autonomous tasking, mission planning, command and control services, and satellite health and safety monitoring embedded within Spectra AI.

With these design advantages, we can distinguish landscape features such as roads and buildings, and gauge commercial activities and patterns such as movements from ships in ports, progress at construction sites, and changes in production by estimating the number of cars in a parking lot.

We design, develop and operate a constellation of proprietary high-resolution, high-revisit LEO smallsats.

Our constellation differentiates BlackSky from competitors as it is optimized to provide reliable and dynamic hourly

monitoring of among the most strategic, high-value locations and assets where we believe approximately 90% of the world's gross domestic product occurs.

Whereas our competitors are dedicated primarily to mapping the entirety of the Earth on a routine basis and who, therefore, require a larger and more expensive constellation to support their mission, BlackSky's unique architecture delivers highly valued imagery and intelligence with a smaller, more capital efficient, and adaptable constellation.

Our constellation can image most locations between the latitudes of 55 degrees North and 55 degrees South with frequent hourly revisits or on-demand, providing our customers with insights and situational awareness throughout the day and as events unfold.

BlackSky operates a constellation of satellites that is licensed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is optimized for latency and capacity and delivers high revisit imaging and analytic services without a dependency on any individual satellite.

This approach enables us to strategically deploy capacity to meet customer needs and tailor the capability over time to meet market demand.

Under optimal conditions and measured from dawn-until-dusk, our constellation achieves a peak revisit rate of up to 15 revisits a day.

Our current satellites (Gen-2) are purpose-built to serve our monitoring mission and are the primary data source for our BlackSky Spectra software platform.

Each satellite is equipped with a modern, commercially-derived optical telescope that can collect imagery at 85-centimeter resolution at nadir.

Launched into LEO, approximately 450 kilometers above the surface of the Earth and placed into a mid-inclination orbit whereby the satellites travel from West to East, our constellation is optimally distributed to provide maximum coverage for our customers.

Our ability to quickly deliver space-based data is enhanced by strategically-placed BlackSky ground stations worldwide.

Our satellite design is further complemented by our autonomous tasking, mission planning, command and control services, and satellite health and safety monitoring embedded within our BlackSky Spectra software.

BlackSky’s Gen-2 constellation provides unique value with the ability to collect imagery and analytics from dawn-until-dusk at a higher cadence and at lower cost than traditional providers.

and allied militaries rely on our services for high-revisit monitoring of airfields, vehicle depots, troop movements, and other high-value locations to detect changes in pattern-of-life.

We have designed our next generation satellites (“Gen-3”) to include significantly enhanced capabilities, such as improved imaging resolution to between 35-50 centimeters and short-wave infrared imaging technology for expanded imaging capabilities in low-light or nighttime.

BlackSky can distinguish landscape features such as roads and buildings, and gauge commercial activities and patterns such as movements from ships in ports, progress at construction sites, and changes in production by estimating the number of cars in a parking lot.

We have designed our next generation satellites (Gen-3) to include significantly enhanced capabilities, including 35-centimeter electro-optical imaging resolution and 1-meter short-wave infrared imaging technology for expanded imaging capabilities in low-light or nighttime.

The Gen-3 constellation will also feature improved data communications capabilities that significantly increase the end-to-end delivery speed of intelligence products.

We anticipate launching our first Gen-3 satellites in 2024.

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The LeoStella partnership further allows us to learn from and leverage their manufacturing expertise and commercial best practices.

While our constellation and ground station infrastructure enables us to capture imagery at higher cadences and lower costs than many of the legacy providers, our software platform, Spectra AI, enables us to provide actionable intelligence to our customers.

Our Software Platform

BlackSky’s Spectra AI software platform processes millions of observations a day from our proprietary satellite constellation and from multiple external data sources including imaging, radar and radio frequency satellites, environmental sensors, asset tracking sensors, IoT connected devices, internet-enabled narrative sources, and a variety of geotemporal data feeds.

Spectra AI employs advanced, proprietary AI and ML techniques to process, analyze, and transform these data feeds into fully automated alerts, information, and insights for our customers.

Our AI-Enabled Software Platform

Our BlackSky Spectra software platform processes millions of observations a day from both our proprietary satellite constellation and by using data from multiple external sources including imaging, radar and radio frequency satellites, environmental sensors, asset tracking sensors, IoT connected devices, internet-enabled narrative sources, and a variety of geotemporal data feeds.

The platform uses proprietary mission operations software that optimizes revisit rates and collection capabilities.

BlackSky Spectra employs advanced, proprietary AI and ML techniques to process, analyze, and transform these data feeds into fully automated alerts, information, and insights for our customers.

These critical insights provide customers with actionable intelligence that supports daily decision making.

Customers access Spectra AI’s data and analytics through an easy-to-use web interface on their desktops or mobile devices.

Through Spectra AI, customers can task BlackSky's constellation, which uses proprietary mission operations software that optimizes revisit rates and collection capabilities, and receive high-resolution imagery and analytics in, on average, under 90 minutes.

Importantly, customers can set-up alerts so that Spectra AI automatically generates and distributes images from BlackSky satellites and analytics upon the occurrence of certain conditions or changes, giving customers a first-to-know advantage.

Understanding the flexibility needed to engage a wide range of customers, the Spectra AI software gives customers the ability to order imagery from other providers.

Customers can also access BlackSky products through application programming interfaces ("APIs"), which are typically embedded with customers or certain reseller channels such as Palantir Technologies.

Customers access BlackSky Spectra’s data and analytics through an easy-to-use web interface on their desktops or mobile devices.

Through BlackSky Spectra, customers can task BlackSky's constellation and receive high-resolution imagery and analytics in, on average, under 90 minutes.

Importantly, customers can set up alerts so that BlackSky Spectra automatically generates and distributes images from BlackSky satellites and analytics upon the occurrence of certain conditions or changes, giving customers a first-to-know advantage.

Understanding the flexibility needed to engage a wide range of customers, BlackSky Spectra gives customers the ability to order imagery from other providers.

Customers can also access BlackSky products through application programming interfaces (APIs), which are typically embedded with customers or certain reseller channels.

As we collect data, we establish a baseline view of important conditions around the world.

Incremental data enables us to detect and understand changes to or deviations from the baseline.

Spectra AI leverages this data, much of it proprietary, to accelerate its learning using neural networks.

We believe that Spectra AI will benefit from a “flywheel learning effect” as we continuously expand and enrich our proprietary data repository.

Designed with security and scalability in mind, Spectra AI is built on the Amazon Web Services platform.

Spectra AI offers a full software stack that includes a data and sensor integration layer, an extract, transform, load (“ETL”) layer, an analytics layer that hosts our AI and ML algorithms, an application layer for our customers, an API framework for developers, and our global intelligence database that captures sensor data.

Spectra AI has been operating for eight years and is continuously updated and refreshed.

BlackSky Spectra leverages this data, much of it proprietary, to accelerate its learning using neural networks.

We believe that BlackSky Spectra will benefit from a “flywheel learning effect” as we continuously expand and enrich our proprietary data repository.

Designed with security and scalability in mind, BlackSky Spectra is built on the Amazon Web Services platform and reinforced with advanced cybersecurity protection enabling safe and secure integration with U.S.

government systems.

BlackSky Spectra offers a full software stack that includes a data and sensor integration layer, an extract, transform, load (ETL) layer, an analytics layer that hosts our AI and ML algorithms, an application layer for our customers, an API framework for developers, and our global intelligence database that captures sensor data.

BlackSky Spectra has been operating for eight years and is continuously updated and refreshed.

We have designed our software stack with a strong focus on API compatibility to enable developers to easily integrate our software with our customers’ information technology platforms.

Our goal is for customers to be able to access Spectra AI with minimal incremental technology investment.

Software development is an important focus for our future as Spectra AI is the key to turning our geospatial data into actionable intelligence that improves and enhances our customers’ business processes and decisions.

Our goal is for customers to be able to access BlackSky Spectra with minimal incremental technology investment.

Software development is an important focus for our future as BlackSky Spectra is the key to turning our geospatial data into actionable intelligence that improves and enhances our customers’ business processes and decisions.

Our Key Services and Products

Our offerings support a broad range of applications including national and homeland security, supply chain intelligence, crisis management, critical infrastructure monitoring, economic intelligence, and others.

We generate revenue by selling imagery and software analytics services through our Spectra AI platform and by providing professional and engineering services to customers on a project-by-project basis.

BlackSky generates revenue by selling On-Demand and Assured product and service offerings that support a broad range of applications including national security, supply chain intelligence, crisis management, critical infrastructure monitoring, economic intelligence, and others.

These offerings are comprised of a predefined, yet customizable, standard set of imagery and software analytics products accessible via our basic subscription plan through our BlackSky Spectra software platform, plus professional and engineering services provided to customers on a project-by-project basis.

Imagery and Software Analytical Services

• Imagery Services :

We offer high-revisit, high-resolution, on-demand satellite imaging services.

Through our Spectra AI platform, customers can directly task our constellation to collect and deliver imagery over specific locations, sites, and regions that are critical to their operations.

We offer customers several service level options, including basic subscription plans for on-demand tasking or multi-year assured access programs, where customers can secure priority access and imaging capacity over a region of interest on a take or pay basis.

We offer high-revisit, high-resolution, satellite imaging products including single-frame day, multi-frame, broad area 2x1, burst, and stereo (2&5-frame) imagery.

Through our BlackSky Spectra software platform, customers can directly task our constellation to collect and deliver imagery over specific locations, sites, and regions that are critical to their operations.

All imagery products are included in the basic subscription plan for On-Demand tasking.

Another option is the multi-year Assured access bundle program, where customers receive secure priority access and imaging capacity over a region of interest on a take or pay basis.

• Data, Software, and Analytics :

Our analytics are also offered on a subscription basis and provide customers with access to our site monitoring, event monitoring, and global data services.

Our AI-generated analytics are also offered on a subscription basis and provide customers with automated access to our site monitoring, event monitoring, and global data

We provide services related to object change and anomaly detection;

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and other sites that contain critical commodities and supply chain inventory.

While we offer a variety of pricing and utilization options for our imagery and software analytical service offerings, most of our agreements are structured as subscription contracts, followed by usage-based pricing and transactional licenses.

These options provide customers with flexibility to utilize our imagery and software analytical services in a manner that best suits their business needs.

While we offer a variety of pricing and utilization options for our imagery and analytical product offerings, most of our agreements are structured as subscription contracts, followed by usage-based pricing and transactional licenses.

These options provide customers with flexibility to utilize our imagery and analytical services in a manner that best suits their business needs.

We offer pricing tiers that enable the customer to manage collection priorities.

For example, during critical events, customers may pay a premium to prioritize their monitoring and collection requirements, while at other times, customers can select lower priority collections to allow for more economical utilization.

Professional and Engineering Services

We develop and deliver advanced launch vehicle, satellite, and payload systems for strategic customers that desire to leverage our capabilities in mission systems engineering and operations, ground station operations, software, analytics and systems development.

Launch vehicle, satellite, and payload systems are typically sold to government customers under fixed price contracts that provide BlackSky with funded research and development to offset our capital investments.

These contracts provide the benefit of accelerating technological developments for our own satellites and building long-term customer relationships that are often expanded into agreements for our imagery and data software services.

We also provide professional service solutions to support customer-specific software feature requests and the integration, testing, and training of our imagery and software analytical services into a customer’s organizational processes and workflows.

Finally, we offer software systems engineering development services to support the integration of high volume and mass quantities of data into customer's operating platforms.

The Company also provides engineering services, which include, developing and delivering advanced satellite and payload systems for a limited number of customers that leverage the Company’s capabilities in mission systems engineering and operations, ground station operations, and software and systems development.

We develop and deliver advanced satellites and payload systems, with operational support, for strategic customers that desire to leverage our expertise in mission systems engineering and operations, ground station operations, software, analytics and systems development.

In this model, satellite and payload systems are typically sold to government customers or government resellers under a fixed price contract with additional revenue streams for ongoing support and services once the satellite is in orbit.

These contracts allow BlackSky to maintain its production line at scale and also benefiting from technological developments and creates ongoing subscription-like contracts.

(1) Included in imagery and software analytical services in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

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Our Customers

Many of the most important and demanding government and commercial organizations in the world, including United States defense and intelligence agencies and international ministries of defense, rely on the actionable intelligence we provide.

Many of the most important and demanding government and commercial organizations in the world, including U.S defense and intelligence agencies and international ministries of defense, rely on the actionable intelligence we provide.

To compete effectively in today’s data-driven military battlefields and commercial market environments, governments and organizations of all sizes and industries face a growing need for timely and affordable geospatial intelligence and analytics to help shape critical decisions.

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Our intelligence customers include the National Reconnaissance Office (“NRO”) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ("NGA").

In 2022, NRO awarded our largest imagery contract to date, valued at up to $1 billion over a 10-year period.

We provide analytic services to the NGA under a 5-year $60 million contract.

We also have won contracts across a range of other governmental customers including Department of Defense customers such as the Air Force, Army, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (“IARPA”).

In May 2022, we were awarded our largest imagery contract to date, valued at up to $1 billion over a ten-year period with the NRO.

Through this contract, we have delivered thousands of images to the NRO and continue to support this important agency through additional study contracts focused on expanding new technologies.

We provide analytic services to the NGA under an up to five-year $60 million contract and have continued to win task orders on a regular basis.

We also have won contracts across a range of other governmental customers including Department of Defense customers such as the Air Force.

• International Governments and Organizations :

We sell to multiple foreign governments, agencies, and organizations worldwide.

For example, an Asian customer recently awarded us a $10 million follow-on subscription contract to provide on-demand, high-resolution imagery services to an Asian government ally.

For example, we were awarded a $150+ million, multi-year subscription contract with a major international ministry of defense to provide next generation space-based tactical geospatial intelligence services.

We won a multi-year renewal agreement with an international defense sector customer for more than $30 million, expanding and securing priority access to BlackSky’s high-frequency imagery services.

Furthermore, we signed a multi-year contract to support the Indonesian Ministry of Defense with space-based capabilities totaling more than $35 million.

We also have won contracts with various other foreign agencies, many of which are multi-million-dollar contracts and multi-year in length.

• Commercial and Other :

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• Low-cost imagery capture .

Our constellation leverages the disruptive economics of small satellites to enable us to capture data in a more cost-effective manner than lega cy satellite imagery providers and offer a variety of pricing models.

Our constellation leverages the disruptive economics of small satellites to enable us to capture data in a more cost-effective manner than legacy satellite imagery providers and offer a variety of pricing models.

Lower cost, more adaptable products allow us to expand the market for our services.

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• On-demand satellite tasking capabilities .

Using our Spectra AI software platform, which can be accessed through a web-browser or via APIs, customers can easily task our constellation and receive high-resolution imagery and advanced analytics delivered to their email, in-house ERP system, or cloud environment in, on average, under 90 minutes.

Using our BlackSky Spectra software platform, which can be accessed through a web-browser or via APIs, customers can easily task our constellation and receive high-resolution imagery and advanced analytics delivered to their email, in-house ERP system, or cloud environment in, on average, under 90 minutes.

This first of its kind capability enables an expansion in the market for geospatial intelligence by eliminating the need for customers to deploy resources to design their own platform or employ geospatial analysts.

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• Proprietary, cloud-based software stack.

Our cloud-based software platform includes proprietary customer applications-such as an ETL layer, advanced AI/ML modules, and our API framework-that enhance Spectra AI's ability to scale quickly and efficiently deliver meaningful data.

Our cloud-based software platform includes proprietary customer applications—such as an ETL layer, advanced AI/ML modules, and our API framework—that enhance BlackSky Spectra's ability to scale quickly and efficiently deliver meaningful data.

• Vertical integration.

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The industry has been evolving over time from a focus on static observation and mapping to a focus on dynamic, high-frequency monitoring capabilities that enable on-demand actionable intelligence.

Geospatial intelligence is playing an increasingly critical role in decision-making for government agencies, commercial enterprises and organizations around the world.

Space-based intelligence is playing an increasingly critical role in decision-making for government agencies, commercial enterprises and organizations around the world.

At the same time, a growing number of government defense and intelligence agencies are increasing their reliance on commercial satellite providers to complement their in-house geospatial data sources.

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Space Force, U.S.

Army, and Space Development Agency are seeking to leverage commercial small satellite constellations for space-based defense and mission-critical intelligence, a priority in the U.S.

Army, and Space Development Agency are seeking to leverage commercial small satellite constellations for space-based defense and mission-critical intelligence, a key priority in the U.S.

defense budget.

investments in space programs are outpacing broader defense spending and are viewed by those in government as vital to our country's national security and defense strategy.

In late 2022, the U.S.

Space Force and the Space Development Agency increased its fiscal year 2023 budget to over $26.3 billion, a 34% increase over fiscal year 2022 levels.

Space Force's $30 billion budget request for fiscal year 2024 is about $3.9 billion over what was enacted for the service in fiscal year 2023.

About $19.2 billion of the Space Force budget is aimed at research, development, testing and evaluation.

In addition, the Space Development Agency, which re-aligned under the Space Force last October, is requesting about $4.7 billion for fiscal 2024, an 80% increase over last year’s request of $2.6 billion.

We believe BlackSky's innovative architecture and operational capabilities are well aligned to support the U.S.

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For example, our business requires licenses and permits from the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) and review by and/or coordination with other agencies of the U.S.

Government, including the Department of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), as well as foreign regulators, such as the New Zealand Space Agency.

Government, including the Department of Defense, NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), as well as foreign regulators, such as the New Zealand Space Agency.

Additional information about the government regulations affecting our business and the risks relating to government contracts appears in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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As of December 31, 2023, we had 279 employees.

BlackSky employs a highly technical workforce, with 58% of our employees working in engineering or operations functions and the remainder in our sales and general and administrative functions.

BlackSky employs a highly technical workforce, with the majority of our employees working in engineering or operations functions and the remainder in our sales and general and administrative functions.

Many of our employees bring significant experience from prior positions working for leading defense contractors, satellite manufacturers, other commercial and military aerospace and defense companies, and government agencies.

Since our inception, BlackSky has sought to recruit qualified and creative employees who possess diverse business capabilities and align with our core corporate values.

Our human capital objectives include identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors, and consultants In addition to competitive salaries, the principal purposes of our cash and equity incentive plans are to attract, retain, and reward personnel through the granting of cash-based and stock-based incentive awards.

Our human capital objectives include identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors, and consultants.

In addition to competitive salaries, the principal purposes of our cash and equity incentive plans are to attract, retain, and reward personnel through the granting of cash-based and stock-based incentive awards.

We believe such plans increase stockholder value by motivating individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve corporate objectives.

As we move into the next stage of our growth, we are devoting more resources to our human capital, in particular sales talent;

and are building the infrastructure necessary to support our workforce and promote communication, respect, and diversity across our team.

We are committed to a set of core corporate values.

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(“Osprey”), consummated its merger (the "Merger") with Osprey Technology Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Osprey, and BlackSky Holdings, Inc.

(“Legacy BlackSky”).

Immediately following the Merger, Osprey changed its name to BlackSky Technology Inc.

BlackSky Holdings, Inc.

("Legacy BlackSky") survived the Merger and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BlackSky Technology Inc.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to “BlackSky”, “the Company”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the business and operations of Legacy BlackSky and its consolidated subsidiaries prior to the Merger and to BlackSky Technology Inc.

and its consolidated subsidiaries, following the closing of the Merger.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to "BlackSky," the "Company," "we," "us," or "our" refer to the business and operations of BlackSky Technology Inc.

and its consolidated subsidiaries (including Legacy BlackSky), following the closing of the Merger.

Our corporate headquarters is located at 13241 Woodland Park Road, Suite 300, Herndon, VA 20171.

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The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings at www.sec.gov.

We use our investor relations website to post important information for investors, including news releases, analyst presentations, and supplemental financial information, and as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

We use our investor relations website to post important information for investors, including news releases, company presentations and events, and supplemental financial information, and as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Accordingly, investors should monitor our investor relations website, in addition to following press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business