Commercial Innovation Center (CIC)

We Are Better Together

Our Commercial Innovation Center (CIC) is a first-of-its-kind, online development and test platform that provides a secure, virtual, open ecosystem and test sandbox for developers and researchers. We do it by harnessing the combined powers of commercial remote sensing, unclassified open datasets, cloud technologies, in a secure development ecosystem fueled by new, emerging, and seasoned tools, services and data to create solutions that keep our nation safe. The Riverside Research CIC is the place where commercial subject matter experts come together securely to collaborate and create the best commercial solutions to real world scenarios before they're integrated and deployed in the field.

Together, we win

It’s not as much fun to play in the sandbox by yourself, right? We know from experience that it’s the collective work of many people with diverse experiences and backgrounds that create the most effective solutions. By design, the CIC encourages partnerships, increases data accessibility, integrates app development, and facilitates the creation of transition-ready prototypes. Because of our unique position as a nonprofit in the defense space, we can provide the neutral environment where collaborative innovation thrives. As demonstrated on this video, capitalizing on all commercial sensors available improves our progress towards persistent observation.

Access to rich datasets

Data is the one thing that is guaranteed to continuously grow and change. Technology entrepreneurs’ success revolves around access to these data and developing improved AI and machine learning tools creating integrated and advanced applications for businesses in support of (United States Government) USG needs.

Capella Space Active RF
Capella Space Active RF
the CIC encourages partnerships, increases data accessibility, integrates app development, and facilitates the creation of transition-ready prototypes
the CIC encourages partnerships, increases data accessibility, integrates app development, and facilitates the creation of transition-ready prototypes

Advanced tools and applications

Technology innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented and virtual reality present significant entrepreneurial opportunities, yet all require geospatial data for development. Early-stage entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and innovators will now have access to the large datasets that are traditionally only available to large, established industry players. Such datasets are often too costly for early-stage entrepreneurs and researchers to acquire, and even if the datasets are made available, they are often not packaged in a manner that allows innovators to work with the data—they are overwhelmingly unwieldy and non-standardized. The CIC data environment seeks to solve that problem, allowing researchers and entrepreneurs new opportunities for experimentation, testing, and training.

The CIC pairs this data with tools and services to streamline development timelines by ensuring flexible licenses are available for your R&D activities within the CIC ecosystem. As new tools and services become available, we negotiate with the vendors for early and shared access amongst our CIC participants to the latest and greatest capabilities from established vendors in the remote sensing market. This visual shows a few or our early integrators, and as new vendors are integrated, we’ll let the community know!

CIC Data Search and Discovery
CIC Data Search and Discovery

Your all-access pass

The CIC supports and enables industry, scientific, academic, and governmental R&D activities by facilitating access to commercial remote sensing data. Riverside Research integrates the hardware, software, processes, data, tools, internet accesses, demonstration capabilities, and other IT infrastructure required to execute CIC participant SIBR projects and meet R&D objectives. Our CIC offers:

  • Exposure to diverse and emerging data and data types for more data scientists
  • Increased interaction between content providers and new application developers; enables cloud-hybrid, multi-INT applications
  • Lowered entry barriers by eliminating the need for a user-developed system
  • Integrated orchestration-to-analysis workflow
  • Timely teaming, technology, and tipping
  • Accelerated access and use of commercial remote sensing solutions and innovation
Right where you want it

Right where you want it

Are you looking for a cloud-hosting environment where you can easily access commercial data for development and test—all from one place to safely develop, load, and test capabilities?

Our trusted, unclassified, virtual development platform provides access to R&D-licensed commercial remote sensing phenomenologies (e.g., EO, radar, IR, RF), connects emerging and established vendors with shared application tools and services, and facilitates GEOINT, MASINT, and Multi-INT research and development. The CIC includes:

  • An ecosystem of commercial data providers (CDPs)
  • A network of application developers
  • Common R&D data and COTS/GOTS tools (e.g., loading, discovery)
  • Common testing data (curated, tagged)
  • Robust DevOps environment
  • Hybrid cloud-ready infrastructure
  • Protected intellectual property and data rights
  • Maturing secure data fabric
CIC mission, vision & values

CIC mission, vision & values

Mission: Provide data scientists and algorithm developers with a virtual development and test platform and access to new and diverse commercial remote sensing data to develop algorithms, tools, and services.

Vision: Work in the Nation’s interest to offer proven expertise and experience in commercial remote sensing to solve problems through innovation, agility, and creative thinking.

Values: Encourage partnerships and connect emerging and established users across USG and industry with shared application tools, services, and diverse commercial constellation data.

Participant Agreements: We offer access to a secure, virtual, cloud-based ecosystem to perform R&D using existing and emerging commercial sources to develop and test algorithms, tools, and services accelerating USG objectives.

Commercial Experts: We offer our commercial experience, data scientists, and phenomenology experts to support efforts using the CIC to perform commercial utility assessments, new sensor development, synthetic data V&V, data value/usability studies, and more.

Products and Services: We offer access to CIC-based products and services such as synthetic data generation, data tagging, AI/ML V&V, data compression, data geo-registration, and more.

Work With the Commercial Innovation Center
Press Inquiries About the CIC

Commercial Innovation in the News

  • Commercial Imagery
  • Satellite Launches
  • EO-MSI
  • SAR
  • HSI
  • RF
  • SSA
Commercial Imagery
Increasing clouds today, heavy rain Monday - KSBW

THE SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS WHERE THE STORMS SYSTEMS, CLOUDS AND RAIN HAVE BEEN OVER THE PACIFIC FOR THE LAST 12 HOURS. FUTURECAST SHOWS WHAT THE ...

Feb 14,2026
Lake Champlain has officially frozen over | Vermont Public

Satellite imagery has helped observers confirm the lake is covered in ice for the first time in seven years.

Feb 14,2026
Kauai Weather Forecast for February 14, 2026

A trough is bringing in some upper level clouds from the south as evident on satellite imagery. Trade winds will continue through the weekend, and ...

Feb 14,2026
Thailand boosts space research with satellite in orbit - TV BRICS

Thailand's KNACKSAT-2 satellite, built with predominantly domestic components, has been deployed from the ISS, supporting space technology testing ...

Feb 14,2026
Germany And France Move To Build European Nuclear Shield Inside NATO - UNITED24

Russia and US Enter a World With No Nuclear Limits—What Comes After New START · Satellite image from February 9, 2026, shows possible Oreshnik missile ...

Feb 14,2026
Senate Leaders Agree To Bipartisan Satellite License Plan - Law360 UK

Senate commerce committee Republicans and Democrats have come together to make some changes to a bill that would speed up the review of satellite ...

Feb 14,2026
GalaxEye Partners with NSIL to Expand Access to Advanced Satellite Imaging

GalaxEye, a leading space-technology startup developing the world's first SyncFused OptoSAR imaging satellite—and India's largest privately built ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX's Starlink gets nod for satellite internet in Vietnam - Yahoo Finance

Vietnam's government has allowed SpaceX to launch its Starlink satellite internet service ‌in the country, state media reported on Saturday.

Feb 14,2026
Meteorology 101: How I forecast for snow in the Pacific Northwest - KATU

We rely on satellite imagery and once weather systems get close enough to the shore, radar will begin to pick up on incoming precipitation. Radar ...

Feb 14,2026
Zelenskiy says US too often asks Ukraine, not Russia, for concessions | Reuters

A satellite image shows the USS Gerald R. Ford off the coast of St Thomas. 12 hours ago Autos & Transportationcategory · GE Aerospace turns to robots ...

Feb 14,2026
Space-Eyes, Inc. Expands Miami Headquarters & Washington, D.C. Presence - floridatoday.com

... geospatial intelligence and decision-support tools that fuse satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and multi-sensor data. The company's ...

Feb 14,2026
Security News This Week: Ring Kills Flock Safety Deal After Super Bowl Ad Uproar - WIRED

Combined with satellite imagery and human reviewers, AI-powered systems could replace in-person inspection of countries' nuclear facilities. Obviously ...

Feb 14,2026
AI powers India's space ambitions: From debris tracking to autonomous satellites

“I think artificial intelligence is very well suited to a data set like satellite imagery because there are petabytes and petabytes of this data that ...

Feb 14,2026
Amazon Leo Hints It'll Open Satellite Internet Tech to Third-Party Antennas

“The ALMM will allow government and enterprise customers to use their own antenna hardware to integrate Amazon Leo's non-geostationary satellite orbit ...

Feb 14,2026
Honored to join @planet's European Advisory Board. Satellite intelligence is no longer ...

Satellite intelligence is no longer optional — it underpins national security and democratic resilience. Ukraine has shown how truth from orbit ...

Feb 14,2026
Satellite Footage Shows Surge in U.S. Aerial Tanker Fleet in Qatar as Buildup Against Iran Continues

Chinese commercial satellite imagery has confirmed a surge in U.S. Air Force deployments of KC-135 aerial refuelling tankers to Al Udeid Air Base ...

Feb 14,2026
Predicting crop evapotranspiration and irrigation requirements with Machine Learning and ...

... satellite imagery) and weather forecasts several days in advance, at a low operational cost. Common agronomy methods are relied upon for accurate ...

Feb 14,2026
Pentagon 'used AI to help capture Maduro' - The Telegraph

While it has previously been used by the military to analyse satellite imagery and intelligence, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Claude was ...

Feb 14,2026
Jefferson County reduces early voting hours at satellite locations - WVLT

Jefferson County election officials have reduced early voting hours at satellite locations in New Market and White Pine to one day only for the ...

Feb 14,2026
Sudan civil war: Ethiopia's, UAE's role under scrutiny - DW.com

Satellite imagery shows a camp with hundreds of tents in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia. Reuters published sattelite imagery showing tents purportedly ...

Feb 14,2026
Satellite Launches
Silently positioned 36.000 km above Earth, satellites of the SBIRS system detect the heat of ...

They do not transmit public images nor do they serve civilian navigation. ... Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, new satellites were launched to gradually ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX rocket launch. Where to watch from Vero Beach to Fort Pierce - TC Palm

The rocket will carry 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window is scheduled from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. ...

Feb 14,2026
Japan plans first space solar power test. Can it beam energy from orbit? - Futura-Sciences

Japan is preparing to launch OHISAMA: a satellite designed to capture sunlight in space, convert it to microwaves, and beam that energy back to ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX Florida rocket launch. Where to watch in Daytona, New Smyrna Beach

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. · The rocket will carry 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth ...

Feb 14,2026
Ukraine war latest: Russians suffering 'crazy losses' in Ukraine, NATO boss says - Sky News

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has addressed world leaders at the Munich Security Conference alongside NATO boss Mark Rutte. Elsewhere, the UK says Russian ...

Feb 14,2026
Musk's AI chatbot Grok gains US market share amid sexualized images backlash, data shows

Vietnam's government has allowed SpaceX to launch its Starlink satellite internet service in the country, state media reported on Saturday. World ...

Feb 14,2026
Govt. school students in Karaikudi launch satellite to detect fungi in atmosphere - The Hindu

Government school students near Karaikudi successfully launched a small-scale satellite to detect fungi in the second layer of the atmosphere.

Feb 14,2026
Head of military's space division warns Russia is considering putting nuclear weapons in orbit - CBC

... launch capacity so the country can have 'assured access to space. ... satellites. "That would be cataclysmic," said Brig.-Gen. Christopher Horner ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX's Starlink gets nod for satellite internet in Vietnam | Reuters

Vietnam's government has allowed SpaceX to launch its Starlink satellite internet service in the country, state media reported on Saturday.

Feb 14,2026
Space-Eyes, Inc. Expands Miami Headquarters & Washington, D.C. Presence - floridatoday.com

... satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and multi-sensor data. The company's expanded Miami presence supports growth across engineering ...

Feb 14,2026
AI powers India's space ambitions: From debris tracking to autonomous satellites

“I think artificial intelligence is very well suited to a data set like satellite imagery because there are petabytes and petabytes of this data that ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX plans Valentine's Day rocket launch at Vandenberg. How to watch - The Desert Sun

This mission will deploy 25 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. Viewers can watch the launch in person or via a live ...

Feb 14,2026
China Leaks U.S. Air Defence Positions To Iran; Sat Images Capture THAAD Deployment In Mideast

Chinese commercial satellite imagery has revealed the deployment of a U.S. Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system at Jordan's ...

Feb 14,2026
'Very lucky day': NASA, SpaceX ace astronaut launch to the space station on Friday the 13th

SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB · February 11, 2026 · ULA sets sights on ramping up launch cadence in ...

Feb 14,2026
NSIL to Resell GalaxEye Space Products: Rediff Moneynews

The products include advanced satellite imagery solutions, such as ... The company will soon launch its "Mission Drishti", a multi-sensory ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX IPO Poses Existential Threat to AST SpaceMobile, Verizon, and AT&T

A neon illustration of satellites and communication nodes including a satellite and Earth. Image source: Getty Images. Starlink DTC. Last month ...

Feb 14,2026
SpaceX plans Valentine's Day rocket launch. Spot liftoff in California - Ventura County Star

The mission will deploy 25 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. · The launch will take place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa ...

Feb 14,2026
Trump's 6000 Starlink SATs Dead? Musk's Protest Support Force Iran To Fast-Track Military Tech?

Iran has announced a significant leap in its space ambitions, unveiling plans for its first indigenous radar-imaging reconnaissance satellites, ...

Feb 14,2026
China Launches First Type 095 “Sui-Class” Nuclear Attack Submarine

Defence Security Asia (@defence_asia). 217 views. China Launches First Type 095 “Sui-Class” Nuclear Attack Submarine — Satellite Imagery Confirms ...

Feb 14,2026
Germany And France Move To Build European Nuclear Shield Inside NATO - UNITED24

... launched M51 ballistic missiles ... Latest news · Russia Places First Oreshnik Nuclear Missile Base Near NATO Borders, Satellite Images Reveal.

Feb 14,2026
EO-MSI
Umurongo ngenderwaho ku isi ushingiye ku mategeko 'ntukibaho' – umutegetsi w'Ubudage

... isi ko "ubwisanzure bwacu ntibwizewe" muri iki gihe cya politike ... Satellite yerekana inzira yinjira munsi y'ubutaka. Iran yarushijeho ...

Feb 14,2026
US, China tensions soar as global nuclear balance is on the brink

Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility and nearby tunnels in central Iran. Picture: Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP.

Feb 14,2026
Trump avuga ko ihinduka ry'ubutegetsi muri Irani ari cyo 'kintu cyiza cyane gishobora kuba'

... Satellite yerekana inzira yinjira munsi y'ubutaka. Iran yarushijeho ... isi ushingiye ku mategeko 'ntukibaho' – umutegetsi w'Ubudage. Haciye ...

Feb 14,2026
Amazon Leo Hints It'll Open Satellite Internet Tech to Third-Party Antennas | PCMag

That's not enough to meet an FCC deadline for the satellite constellation, so Amazon has asked for an extension. ... Legion Go Review · NordVPN Review ...

Feb 14,2026
Europe's most powerful rocket carries 32 satellites for Amazon Leo network into space

BlackSky expands Gen 3 Assured deals with new defense customer · Muon Space ramps up multi-mission satellite constellations · ESA member states back ...

Feb 14,2026
ERUPTION AT 20260213/0514Z FL090 EXTD WNW REPORTED OBS VA DTG: 13/0510Z

Satellite image ... isi gullies. Crater glow was visible to the naked eye. Plume(s) rose to ...

Feb 14,2026
BlackSky's Gen-3 Constellation: Building the Real-Time Space Infrastructure Layer - AInvest

BlackSky is not just selling satellite images. It is building the fundamental infrastructure layer for real-time space intelligence, ...

Feb 14,2026
SSA

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