NASA awards EarthDaily $3m task order to test commercial data against Landsat

NASA has awarded EarthDaily a $3 million task order to supply EarthDaily Constellation data and technical support to NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS), announced on 26 October 2026. The work falls under the joint Sustainable Land Imaging commercial transition initiative, which examines how commercial data can complement government systems while preserving the continuity of the Landsat record.

The agencies will assess the data against Landsat requirements, including calibration, stability, radiometric and geometric performance and harmonisation, and will test whether it can support Landsat-grade surface reflectance and surface temperature. Testing will also run through existing USGS and NASA processing pipelines, and the study will look at AI-ready products.

Eight of the constellation's 10 satellites are in orbit. It collects 22 spectral bands, with native resolution of 5 m in visible and near-infrared, 95 m in short-wave infrared and 120 m in thermal infrared.

Why it matters: The study could set the benchmarks commercial imagery must meet to extend the free, open Landsat archive, which underpins land, crop and environmental monitoring across Africa. It points towards hybrid government-commercial missions with more frequent revisits.