Key Takeaways
- • EarthDaily announced on October 26, 2026 that it received a $3 million task order from NASA to benchmark its Constellation satellite data against Landsat standards.
- • The evaluation is conducted alongside the U.S. Geological Survey and supports the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) commercial transition initiative.
- • Federal researchers will test EarthDaily data within USGS Analysis Ready Data and NASA Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 pipelines across calibration stability, geometric accuracy, and radiometric performance.
- • The award also assesses the data's utility for training artificial intelligence foundation models, building on EarthDaily Analytics' acquisition of Descartes Labs.
- • Successful validation is positioned as a foundational step toward hybrid mission architectures combining government-owned orbital assets with commercial constellations.
Summary
On Monday, October 26, 2026, Earth observation operator EarthDaily announced it has received a $3 million task order from NASA to integrate EarthDaily Constellation data with federal land imaging programs, according to the company's announcement as reported by SatNews. The work is conducted alongside the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and funds technical evaluations of how commercial satellite observations can support the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) commercial transition initiative and complement the scientific record of the Landsat program.
The evaluation benchmarks EarthDaily's orbital data against Landsat standards across calibration stability, geometric accuracy, and radiometric performance. Federal researchers will test the dataset within USGS Analysis Ready Data and NASA Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 processing pipelines to determine whether commercial feeds can support Landsat-grade surface reflectance. The collaboration also assesses the data's utility in training artificial intelligence foundation models, drawing on capabilities established when EarthDaily Analytics acquired Descartes Labs to scale machine-learning workflows for broad-area environmental analytics.
The EarthDaily Constellation currently operates eight of its planned 10 satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, with a 240-kilometer swath and a 10:30 a.m. local equatorial crossing time, imaging 92 percent of Earth's landmass daily. Each spacecraft collects unsharpened data across 22 spectral bands spanning visible, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, and thermal wavelengths, with native spatial resolution of 5 meters in visible and near-infrared channels, 95 meters in short-wave infrared, and 120 meters in thermal infrared. Dedicated water-vapor and cirrus channels support automated atmospheric correction.
EarthDaily CEO Don Osborne framed the effort around scientific continuity. "Landsat has created an extraordinary scientific record of how our planet is changing, built on decades of consistent and trusted measurement," Osborne said. "EarthDaily was built around the same fundamental idea: to understand change, you first need measurements you can trust and compare over time. As Earth observation increasingly becomes an input to AI, that consistency becomes even more important."
Throughout the task order, EarthDaily and federal scientists will conduct technical exchanges to refine data integration protocols and establish standards for commercial derived products. Successful validation is expected to serve as a foundational step toward hybrid mission architectures that combine government-owned orbital assets with commercial constellations.
The evaluation benchmarks EarthDaily's orbital data against Landsat standards across calibration stability, geometric accuracy, and radiometric performance. Federal researchers will test the dataset within USGS Analysis Ready Data and NASA Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 processing pipelines to determine whether commercial feeds can support Landsat-grade surface reflectance. The collaboration also assesses the data's utility in training artificial intelligence foundation models, drawing on capabilities established when EarthDaily Analytics acquired Descartes Labs to scale machine-learning workflows for broad-area environmental analytics.
The EarthDaily Constellation currently operates eight of its planned 10 satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, with a 240-kilometer swath and a 10:30 a.m. local equatorial crossing time, imaging 92 percent of Earth's landmass daily. Each spacecraft collects unsharpened data across 22 spectral bands spanning visible, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, and thermal wavelengths, with native spatial resolution of 5 meters in visible and near-infrared channels, 95 meters in short-wave infrared, and 120 meters in thermal infrared. Dedicated water-vapor and cirrus channels support automated atmospheric correction.
EarthDaily CEO Don Osborne framed the effort around scientific continuity. "Landsat has created an extraordinary scientific record of how our planet is changing, built on decades of consistent and trusted measurement," Osborne said. "EarthDaily was built around the same fundamental idea: to understand change, you first need measurements you can trust and compare over time. As Earth observation increasingly becomes an input to AI, that consistency becomes even more important."
Throughout the task order, EarthDaily and federal scientists will conduct technical exchanges to refine data integration protocols and establish standards for commercial derived products. Successful validation is expected to serve as a foundational step toward hybrid mission architectures that combine government-owned orbital assets with commercial constellations.
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