Public sector scales geospatial engineering
NASA selected Development Seed to provide R&D support to its Office of Data Science and Informatics, and Deloitte announced two new satellites to expand its space‑data capacity. Both items were published this week and highlight new public‑sector and commercial investments in operational data engineering for space programs. ( )
Geospatial engineering is the work of turning satellite images and other location data into systems agencies can use every day. This week, NASA picked Development Seed for that job, and Deloitte said two new satellites are now in orbit for its own space-data business. (nasa.gov) (deloitte.com) NASA said on April 13 that Development Seed of Washington will support the Office of Data Science and Informatics at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The agency put the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract at a maximum value of $300 million over five years, with work beginning April 15, 2026. (nasa.gov) NASA said the work includes system architecture, operations and maintenance for tools and platforms the office already built, and methods for data curation, management and stewardship. In plain terms, that means organizing large Earth and space datasets so scientists and program managers can find, trust and reuse them. (nasa.gov) Deloitte said on April 13 that Deloitte-2 and Deloitte-3 launched on March 29, 2026, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The two spacecraft join Deloitte-1, which the company said launched in early 2025, as part of Project Constellation. (deloitte.com) (executivebiz.com) Deloitte said the new satellites carry payloads to expand space-data collection and to test software-only cyber defense tools that can run on satellites already in orbit. The company said the same program is aimed at improving the cyber resilience of older satellites that were not built with newer defenses. (deloitte.com) The two announcements land as government agencies and contractors move from buying raw imagery to buying the pipelines that clean, label and deliver it. NASA’s contract centers on internal data infrastructure, while Deloitte is adding hardware in orbit to feed and secure its own analytics business. (nasa.gov) (deloitte.com) That split reflects how the market is evolving. NASA’s Office of Data Science and Informatics sits inside a research agency that manages large scientific archives, while Deloitte’s Project Constellation is pitched to commercial and government customers that want space-based data and cyber services. (nasa.gov) (deloitte.com) (executivebiz.com) Deloitte’s satellite push also builds on an earlier supplier deal. ExecutiveBiz reported in December 2025 that Spire Global won a contract to design, build and operate eight satellites for Deloitte’s space-focused cyber missions. (executivebiz.com) NASA and Deloitte are investing at different layers of the same stack: one on the ground in data systems, the other in orbit with new spacecraft. Together, the announcements show that space programs now need engineers who can move data as reliably as they move rockets. (nasa.gov) (deloitte.com)
