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.

Advanced tools and applications

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

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
Iran launches satellites from Russia in message to Israel | The Jerusalem Post

In 2022, a Russian rocket carrying an Iranian satellite successfully launched into space, causing national security and intelligence concerns for ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia sends 3 Iranian satellite into orbit, report says | AP News

Iran's state television says that Russia has sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit.

Dec 28,2025
Russia Parks Oreshnik Nuclear Missiles in Belarus—But Aims at the West

The site is situated just 4–5 kilometers from the Russian border in the Mogilev region. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs dated ...

Dec 28,2025
UN Aid Team Reaches El Fasher for First Time Since RSF Blockade - The Media Line

On Dec. 16, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab released satellite imagery identifying approximately 150 clusters of human remains across the city ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia moves nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles into Belarus, satellites show

Satellite imagery of the Oreshnik IRBM at a deployment site in Belarus on Nov. ... Researchers studying commercial satellite images said the ...

Dec 28,2025
Türksat aims to become global player in 2026: CEO | Daily Sabah

Türkiye's satellite operator, Türksat, aims to become a global player in satellite ... intelligence (AI)," he added. "The construction will begin ...

Dec 28,2025
A 'national pride' highway meets Indigenous resistance in ancient Nepali town - Mongabay

Construction personnel at work on the ... satellite city. Community members stress their fight is not about ...

Dec 28,2025
Soyuz rocket to launch the Aist-2T pair, Iranian satellites - RussianSpaceWeb.com

The Aist-2T variant also featured a built-in propulsion system for the first time, while the satellite's downlink channel for sending imaging data ...

Dec 28,2025
SPACEX SAYS GOODBYE TO 2025 WITH ONE LAST BOOM It's the 21st flight for this ...

... satellite that can spy on ships, disasters, and pretty much anything ... Mario Nawfal's Image 1 on X. Mario Nawfal's Image 2 on X. 27. 31.

Dec 28,2025
China expands nuclear warhead manufacturing capacity, research finds - MSN

Satellite images suggest China is growing the sites where it makes warheads, while also preparing to retaliate faster — signs of its nuclear ...

Dec 28,2025
Sudan army prepares for RSF attack from Ethiopia on Blue Nile towns

On Thursday, activists circulated satellite imagery showing the completion of two new aircraft hangars at Assosa Airport, along with ongoing ...

Dec 28,2025
South Western Railway farewell train tour raises more than £45,000 - BBC

The satellite image shows a bird's eye view of land to be built on; many. Plans for thousands of homes up for debate in 2026. The proposed ...

Dec 28,2025
650-foot mega-tsunami is recorded by satellites, sends seismic waves worldwide for nine days

Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite image pinpointing the mega-tsunami location at Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. Click image to enlarge. Credit ...

Dec 28,2025
A rare space image links Earth's glow with the Andromeda Galaxy | - The Times of India

Night-time satellite imagery has been an instrumental method of observation over the years in the studies of human settlement patterns, economic ...

Dec 28,2025
Big Mining Companies 2026: Gold & Lithium Leaders

One of the most exciting technological transformations in today's mining sector is the shift towards satellite-based mineral intelligence—a rapidly ...

Dec 28,2025
WMO welcomes new generation of meteorological satellites

... satellite. The true-color composite imagery at 02 UTC captured three typhoons in the Pacific. Himawari-8 was launched using H-IIA Launch Vehicle ...

Dec 28,2025
338,349 Shares in Planet Labs PBC $PL Bought by Rice Hall James & Associates LLC

Planet's imagery platform is designed to support timely decision-making by transforming raw satellite data into actionable insights for business and ...

Dec 28,2025
CZ-12A Flight 1 Update: Satellite imagery indicates the first stage booster impacted the ...

Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro). 87 likes. CZ-12A Flight 1 Update: Satellite imagery indicates the first stage booster impacted the ground ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia likely deploying deadly hypersonic missiles at former airbase in Belarus, satellite ...

... satellite imagery utilized for their analysis of the Oreshnik Deployment was provided by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite imagery company. As ...

Dec 28,2025
Watch the Earth Change: New QGIS Plugin Creates Satellite Timelapse Animations in Seconds

A QGIS plugin for creating timelapse animations from satellite and aerial imagery using Google Earth Engine. Supports NAIP, Landsat, Sentinel-2, ...

Dec 28,2025
Satellite Launches
Russia sends 3 Iranian satellite into orbit, report says - WTOP News

... images, applicable in the ... As a long-standing project, Iran from time-to-time launches satellite carriers to send its satellites into space.

Dec 28,2025
Iran launches three domestically built satellites aboard Russian Soyuz rocket - IRNA English

He said the satellites are capable of transmitting imaging data with resolutions ranging from 15 meters to less than five meters, adding that the data ...

Dec 28,2025
Successful Launch of Three Iranian Remote-Sensing Satellites into Low Earth Orbit - WANA

... launch vehicle from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome. These three satellites are designed for remote sensing and imaging, with missions focused on ...

Dec 28,2025
Three Iranian satellites launched from Russia, state media says | Reuters

Three more Iranian satellites were sent into space on Russia's Soyuz launchers on Sunday, Iranian state media said, as the two U.S.-sanctioned ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia sends three Iranian satellites into orbit | The Times of Israel

A Soyuz 2 rocket carrying three Iranian satellites has launched from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome. Iran claims its Kowsar-1.5 , Paya and Zafar-2 ...

Dec 28,2025
Iran Says It Launched Three Satellites Into Space From Russia - Bloomberg.com

Headlining the three is Paya, which the report described as Iran's heaviest and most advanced domestically built imaging satellite to date. The ...

Dec 28,2025
Iran launches new satellites from Russian site | The Jerusalem Post

Iran launched three domestically developed satellites into space on Sunday from a Russian launch ... They are expected to transmit imaging data with ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia Developing Pellet Weapon to Disrupt Starlink Satellites - WebProNews

Drawing from multiple sources, including a recent article on Slashdot, the suspicions stem from intercepted communications and satellite imagery ...

Dec 28,2025
Iran launches three satellites from Russia in joint Soyuz mission

Kowsar-1.5 combines imaging and internet-of-things capabilities and is aimed primarily at agricultural and farm-monitoring uses, Iranian officials say ...

Dec 28,2025
650-foot mega-tsunami is recorded by satellites, sends seismic waves worldwide for nine days

Scientists soon linked the signal to Greenland's Dickson Fjord, a narrow inlet hemmed in by 3,000-foot cliffs on each side. Fresh satellite images ...

Dec 28,2025
FALCON 9 READY TO LAUNCH COSMO-SKYMED: ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ORBIT ...

... satellite that'll beef up Italy's ability to monitor natural disasters ... imaging, day or night, rain or shine. While legacy space programs ...

Dec 28,2025
China expands nuclear warhead manufacturing capacity, research finds

Satellite images suggest China is growing the sites where it makes ... launch-on-warning posture, meaning that China would be prepared to ...

Dec 28,2025
China launches new satellite, boosting meteorological observation capabilities_昆明信息港

Its lightning imager captures 500 frames per second and can identify lightning events within a 30-gigabit-per-second data stream -- a processing ...

Dec 28,2025
China launches new satellite, boosting meteorological observation capabilities - 荆楚网

XICHANG, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday sent a new satellite into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in th ... Its lightning imager ...

Dec 28,2025
Iran president says US, Israel, Europe waging 'full-fledged war' on country - Al Jazeera

What do satellite images of Fordow show? How Trump rejoined 'team ... They also come six months after Israel and the US launched strikes on ...

Dec 28,2025
The global space industry's most consequential moves of 2025 - digitimes

The global aerospace and satellite industry did not experience a single, earthshaking breakthrough in 2025. ... 2025 Amazon China Japan launch LEO.

Dec 28,2025
Three privately built Iranian satellites set to be launched on Sunday - IRNA English

The satellites are scheduled to be placed into low Earth orbit using a Russian launch vehicle. He explained that sensing satellites transmit imaging ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia moves nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles into Belarus, satellites show

Russia likely began deploying nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles to Belarus near Krichev, satellite images show, weeks before the New START treaty ...

Dec 28,2025
WMO welcomes new generation of meteorological satellites

... satellite. The true-color composite imagery at 02 UTC captured three typhoons in the Pacific. Himawari-8 was launched using H-IIA Launch Vehicle No.

Dec 28,2025
Russia likely deploying deadly hypersonic missiles at former airbase in Belarus, satellite ...

According to American researchers, Russia is now using an older military airbase located in eastern Belarus as a launch site for its new hypersonic ...

Dec 28,2025
SAR
Wine weekend at the Mamilla Hotel | The Jerusalem Post

The Safir satellite-carrier rocket, which was designed for Iran's ... Paz is a passionate advocate of Carignan, which was grown in Israel in ...

Dec 28,2025
Russia sends 3 Iranian satellite into orbit, report says | WGN Radio 720 - Chicago's Very Own

The report said that Paya, weighing 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is the heaviest satellite that Iran has ever deployed into orbit. ... Paz holds a press ...

Dec 28,2025
Britain and Germany signed a joint agreement worth $70 million for mobile artillery systems

Rheinmetall and ICEYE establish joint venture for SAR satellite production07.11.25, 15:48 • 2701 view. The system is manufactured by the Franco ...

Dec 28,2025
The Sky Today on Sunday, December 28: The stars are smiling - Astronomy Magazine

It provides guidance for observing the constellation Auriga ... From Capella, drop about 8.7° south-southeast to 5th-magnitude Sigma (σ) ...

Dec 28,2025
My best investments in 2025 — and those that have lost me the most - The Times

That day this fund announced a €1.7 billion deal for its largest holding, the Finnish micro satellite manufacturer, ICEYE, which accounts for 37 ...

Dec 28,2025
In orbit: Canada's satellite-to-cell offerings poised to grow after Rogers beta trial - Castanet

EOS, 0.2172, +0.93%. Dogecoin, 0.1703, +0.59%. Cardano, 0.5054, -0.20%. Data from CryptoCompare. RECENT STORIES. Canada News. Expanding satellite-to- ...

Dec 28,2025
Bolivia Lifts Restrictions on Satellite Companies Like Starlink to Upgrade Internet

Bolivia's centrist President Rodrigo Paz signed a decree that will allow global satellite internet companies Starlink or Kuiper to provide ...

Dec 28,2025
Launch Update | PSLV-C62 / EOS-N1 A new NOTAM has been issued for the upcoming PSLV ...

Launch Update | PSLV-C62 / EOS-N1 A new NOTAM has been issued for the upcoming PSLV-C62 mission carrying the EOS-N1 satellite. NOTAM enforcement ...

Dec 28,2025
RF
SSA

Questions about Commercial Innovation Center (CIC)