BlackSky is a space-based intelligence company that designs, builds, and operates a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), selling imagery, AI-generated analytics, and data services primarily to defense and intelligence customers. Rather than mapping the entire Earth, BlackSky focuses on high-frequency monitoring of specific strategic locations — airfields, naval bases, ports, and border crossings. Its Gen-3 satellites offer 35-centimeter electro-optical resolution and can revisit most locations up to 15 times per day, with customers receiving intelligence within an average of 90 minutes of tasking through BlackSky's Spectra software platform. Customers are overwhelmingly government entities — U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and international ministries of defense — with commercial customers representing a small fraction of revenue. BlackSky generates revenue through subscriptions for imagery and analytics (~70% of revenue), professional and engineering services (~30%), and a growing Mission Solutions offering that allows sovereign governments to own and operate their own Gen-3 satellites. The subscription business resembles a SaaS model layered on capital-intensive satellite infrastructure: once satellites are in orbit, adding new subscribers carries minimal incremental cost, creating strong operating leverage. BlackSky manufactures its own satellites at its Tukwila, Washington facility through its subsidiary LeoStella, which it argues reduces on-orbit costs to roughly 10–15% of legacy large commercial satellites. International customers represented roughly 50% of revenue by Q3 2025, and BlackSky's funded backlog exceeded $350M as of mid-2025.