Q3 2025 BlackSky Technology Inc Earnings Call

Speaker #2: To be in Hollywood .

Speaker #3: Good morning ladies and gentlemen , and welcome to BlackSky Technology Inc. Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call . All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise .

Speaker #3: After the speakers remarks , there will be a question and answer session . To ask a question , you may press star . Then one on your touchtone phone .

Speaker #3: To withdraw your question , please press star one . Again , please note this conference call is being recorded . I would now like to turn the call over to Aly Bonilla .

Speaker #3: Black Skies Vice President of Investor Relations . Please go ahead . Ali .

Speaker #4: Good morning and thank you for joining us today . I'm joined by our chief Executive officer , Brian O'Toole , and our Chief Financial officer , Henry Dubois .

Speaker #4: On today's call , Brian will provide some highlights on the quarter and give a strategic update on the business . Henry will then review the company's financial results and outlook for 2025 .

Speaker #4: Following our prepared remarks , we will open the line for your questions . A replay of this conference call will be available from approximately 12:30 p.m.

Speaker #4: Eastern Time today through November 13th . Information to access the replay can be found in today's press release . Additionally , a webcast of this earnings call will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website at .

Speaker #4: In conjunction with today's call . We have posted a quarterly earnings presentation on the Investor Relations website that you may use to follow along with our prepared remarks .

Speaker #4: Before we begin , let me remind you that certain statements made during today's conference call regarding our future plans , objectives and expected performance , including our financial guidance for 2025 , are forward looking statements .

Speaker #4: Actual results may differ materially as these statements are based on our current expectations as of today , and are subject to risks and uncertainties , including those stated in our form 10-K .

Speaker #4: We encourage you to review our press release form 10-K and other recent SEC filings for a full discussion of the risks and uncertainties that pertain to these statements , and that may affect future results or the market price of our stock .

Speaker #4: Black Sky assumes no obligation to update forward looking statements , except as may be required by applicable law . In addition , during today's call , we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures , including adjusted EBITDA and cash operating expenses .

Speaker #4: A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most comparable GAAP measures are included in today's accompanying presentation , which can be viewed and downloaded from our Investor Relations website .

Speaker #4: At this point , I'll turn the call over to Brian OToole . Brian .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Ellie , and good morning , everyone . Thank you for joining us on today's call . Beginning with slide three . I'm pleased with the strong momentum in the business as the success of Gen three is delivering best in class imagery and analytics and driving significant demand toward unlocking our next phase of growth .

Speaker #5: We are gaining customer traction , growing our pipeline , and building backlog for both our imagery and analytic services , and for Gen three powered sovereign solutions customers around the world are recognizing Gen three superior performance , especially at a time when they are seeking to accelerate their sovereign space based intelligence capabilities .

Speaker #5: Blacksky is well positioned to capitalize on this market opportunity by leveraging a full technology stack that includes real time software , advanced AI Gen three satellites , and vertically integrated satellite production capabilities .

Speaker #5: While the quarter reflected anticipated impacts related to US government budget uncertainty , we closed significant new contract awards and expect to remain on track to hit our full year financial objectives .

Speaker #5: Strong international demand is outpacing the near-term US government business , and as such , we are anticipating a strong Q4 and expect to take that momentum into 2026 .

Speaker #5: Now , let me share some recent highlights as shown on slide four . First , we were awarded more than $60 Million in New contracts , primarily with international customers .

Speaker #5: As we continue to diversify our customer base and revenue mix . In addition , these contract wins are predominantly for the delivery of Gen three services , demonstrating the traction we are seeing for this capability around the world .

Speaker #5: We expect this momentum to continue as we move forward on the deployment of the Gen three constellation over the coming months . Second , we're pleased to have been awarded a contract valued at over $30 million to integrate Gen three high cadence tactical ISR services into a strategic international defense customer secure environment .

Speaker #5: This contract demonstrates how black Sky is accelerating sovereign space based intelligence capabilities by leveraging proven commercial space technology to address their mission critical requirements .

Speaker #5: Third , fraction for our Gen three imagery continues to build as we expand the number of customers participating in our early Access program , including a new seven figure contract to commence delivery of Gen three imagery services to the US government .

Speaker #5: We are starting to see contributions from Gen three imagery revenues and expect this trend to continue as we bring more Gen three capacity online .

Speaker #5: Fourth , we're seeing our AI and analytic solutions continue to gain traction across our customer base , including with Luno , the global data marketplace , and with major international government programs .

Speaker #5: Fifth , our Gen three constellation continues to expand our latest satellite is at the launch site , and we're excited to get this satellite launched as we move forward in our plans to have a baseline Gen three commercial constellation fully operational next year .

Speaker #5: And finally , our cash balance increased more than 50% from last year . Following the successful raise , we completed in July , bringing our total liquidity to over $200 million .

Speaker #5: Our stronger balance sheet and cash position puts us on a clear path toward free cash flow operations . These highlights underscore how our space , software and AI capabilities are well positioned to provide customers with mission critical intelligence that they rely on every day for their national security needs .

Speaker #5: I would now like to share some more details on the operational highlights from the quarter . Turning to slide five . As I highlighted a moment ago , we're seeing international demand for sovereign solutions continue to accelerate , and in the near term , is outpacing our US government business .

Speaker #5: In fact , revenues from international customers now represent about half of our total revenues , driven by new contracts and expanded service agreements with a number of ministries of defense and organizations around the world .

Speaker #5: And we expect this trend to continue . We should also note that over 90% of our backlog is related to international contracts . For Gen three capabilities .

Speaker #5: Countries around the world are accelerating their investments in space based intelligence solutions in support of national security and economic development , and narratives .

Speaker #5: This is driving a major shift and expansion of the market , which is being reflected in growing space based defense budgets and sovereign investment funds .

Speaker #5: Blacksky is well positioned to capitalize on these market dynamics , as our vertically integrated technology enables us to accelerate an organization's space based intelligence capabilities , leveraging proven and mature software , AI , and satellite technologies .

Speaker #5: We are winning new contracts and building an expanded sales pipeline as demand for our Gen three powered sovereign solutions continues to gain traction worldwide .

Speaker #5: Moving to slide six , we recently won a multiyear contract valued at over $30 million with a strategic international defense customer to integrate our Gen three high cadence tactical ISR services into their secure operational environment .

Speaker #5: This expanded solution will enable black sky tasking and AI enabled analytic services to operate seamlessly within the customer's workflows , delivering a new level of fully secure and autonomous operations .

Speaker #5: For tactical ISR services . Being delivered under this program feature high frequency Gen three tasking combined with real time AI enabled detection , identification and classification of tactical objects delivered through a low latency architecture .

Speaker #5: This win marks a step forward in the operational deployment of our Gen three capabilities in support of delivering secure , real time tactical ISR solutions for 24 over seven time dominant missions .

Speaker #5: Turning to slide seven . We continue to win contracts and task orders on programs such as the Global Data marketplace and Nggas Luno program in Q3 , we received a seven figure delivery order under the nggas Luno program , bringing our total orders won this year under this contract to about $30 million .

Speaker #5: This follow on award leverages our proprietary computer vision algorithms and AI capability to automatically detect and identify areas of change caused by human activity .

Speaker #5: Our proven AI software is very effective in identifying anomalies , detecting infrastructure changes , and delivering alerts within minutes , giving defense analysts a crucial first to know advantage .

Speaker #5: Moving to slide eight . We're seeing significant demand and growing traction for our Gen three imaging services . As additional customers have signed up for early access agreements in Q3 , including a new seven figure contract with the US government .

Speaker #5: The positive customer feedback we've received from early adopters confirms that Gen three is very high resolution imagery , combined with our AI driven analytics is delivering high value intelligence at compelling performance for the class of this satellite .

Speaker #5: And we expect this momentum to continue as we build out the constellation . Turning to slide nine . We're pleased that our next gen three satellite has arrived at the launch site , and we anticipate its deployment in the coming weeks .

Speaker #5: Gen three satellites continue to move through our production line , and we will continue a cadence of launches to build out our constellation in 2026 .

Speaker #5: The Gen three satellites in orbit are performing well and generating revenue . Moving to slide ten , we believe the long term opportunities with the US government remain strong , as many agencies are seeking to leverage mature commercial space technologies to advance national capabilities , especially missions that require proven technology to support proliferated low earth satellite constellations .

Speaker #5: We continue to make important progress across our US government portfolio , including advanced R&D for capabilities like the integration of optical inter-satellite , cross links into our current and next generation capabilities .

Speaker #5: Although we are experienced near-term impacts of the fiscal year 2026 budget on the program , we are seeing congressional support to restore funding to the program .

Speaker #5: We expect to have better visibility once the final budget is approved. As the U.S. government expands its investments in space, we see opportunities for companies like BlackSky that have proven agile space capabilities and tech stacks that can rapidly deploy their technology to support cost-effective government programs.

Speaker #5: In particular , there are programs such as Golden Dome , where aggressive deployment schedules and non-traditional acquisition models favor proven commercial space capabilities .

Speaker #5: We have a strong track record of supporting these types of customers and feel we are well positioned as these future opportunities unfold . Turning to slide 11 .

Speaker #5: We continue to make progress on our Eros initiative . Recall that Eros is a new satellite designed to provide wide area mapping , monitoring and change detection to address an anticipated gap in these capabilities .

Speaker #5: In the 2028 timeframe , we continue to work through the design phase and engage potential customers and partners on the development of this constellation .

Speaker #5: We will have more to report as we progress on this program through 2026 . With that , I'll now turn it over to Henry to go through the financial results .

Speaker #5: Henry . Thank you . Brian , and .

Speaker #6: Good morning , everyone . Starting with slide 13 , total revenue for the first nine months of 2025 was $71.4 million , consistent with the prior year period .

Speaker #6: While we were expecting imagery and analytics revenue growth in the third quarter of 2025 , our revenue was negatively impacted in August and September by approximately $4 million due to reductions made in the EOC contract .

Speaker #6: Our professional and engineering services revenue for the first nine months of 2025 grew to $20.8 million , a 9% increase over the same period in the prior year .

Speaker #6: Let's now turn to slide 14 and talk about cash operating expenses , which excludes stock based compensation , depreciation and amortization expenses . For the first nine months of 2025 , cash operating expenses were $56.6 million , compared to $48 million in the prior year period .

Speaker #6: The year over year increase in cash operating expenses was driven by about $9 million of overhead expenses in 2025 from the integration of Leo Stella .

Speaker #6: These costs would have been previously capitalized into our satellite assets and not included as operating expenses . Therefore , excluding the Leo Stella overhead expenses .

Speaker #6: Year to date 2025 cash operating expenses would have been in line with the prior year period . Demonstrating the discipline we have in managing our costs while still making investments in our business .

Speaker #6: Moving to slide 15 . Our adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2025 was a loss of $7.9 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $4.3 million in the prior year period .

Speaker #6: The year over year decrease was primarily attributable to EOC and Leo Stella . As I mentioned earlier , excluding these two impacts , we would have reported a positive adjusted EBITDA of approximately $5 million for the first nine months of 2025 .

Speaker #6: We remain committed to achieving adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion . Let's move on to our cash and liquidity position as shown on slide 16 .

Speaker #6: We ended the third quarter of 2025 with $147.6 million of cash , restricted cash and short term investments , which is more than double our cash balance from a year ago .

Speaker #6: This amount includes $65.9 million in net cash proceeds from a convertible note offering and $10.8 million from the exercise of warrants , both completed in July .

Speaker #6: In addition to the cash , we also have $43.4 million in unbilled contract assets , of which 36 million is anticipated to be billed and received over the next 12 months .

Speaker #6: Together with a $13.5 million of available launch financing . This brings our total liquidity position to over $200 million . This position reflects an increase of $85 million , or a 71% growth over the position we had in the third quarter of 2024 and provides black Sky with sufficient cash to deploy our Gen three Constellation , invest in strengthening our in-house AI capabilities , continue the design , development of our Eros program , and puts us on a path to positive free cash flow .

Speaker #6: Turning to slide 17 . We are maintaining our guidance for full year 2020 revenue , adjusted EBITDA and capital expenditures . We are maintaining the current range as we are actively working to close on a number of large sales opportunities that we expect will impact the fourth quarter .

Speaker #6: In summary , we're pleased with the momentum in our business . A growing sales pipeline , our strong cash and liquidity position . We look forward to a strong fourth quarter .

Speaker #6: I see visibility growth in 2026 and continuing our path to free cash flow. With that, I'll now turn it back over to Brian for some closing remarks.

Speaker #6: Brian .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Henry . In closing , we're pleased with the strong momentum in our business and the growing demand for our space based intelligence solutions .

Speaker #5: As we look ahead , we expect a strong finish to 2025 and significant high visibility growth in 2026 . This visibility is anchored by a strong backlog of international contracts and a growing pipeline for our imagery and analytic services , and sovereign solutions .

Speaker #5: Customers around the world are recognizing Gen three superior performance , especially at a time when they are seeking to accelerate their sovereign space based intelligence capabilities .

Speaker #5: The opportunities ahead are significant . We remain confident in our ability to capitalize on the growing global market for our space based intelligence solutions .

Speaker #5: This concludes our remarks for the call and will now take your questions .

Speaker #3: We will now begin the question and answer session . To ask a question , you may press star then one on your touch tone phone .

Speaker #3: If you are using a speakerphone , please pick up your handset before pressing the keys . To withdraw your question , please press star one .

Speaker #3: Again , and at this time we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster . And your first question comes from the line of Edison Yu of Deutsche Bank .

Speaker #3: Please go ahead .

Speaker #7: Hey , good morning everyone . Thanks for taking our questions . First , I wanted to check on the Gen three deployment cadence .

Speaker #7: Is that still progressing on the same kind of deployment number as you were previously looking for ?

Speaker #5: Yes . Good morning . Edison . Yeah . As we mentioned , the next satellite is at the launch site and expect that to be deployed here in the coming weeks .

Speaker #5: We did find a faulty component in that satellite during final testing . So we experienced some delays . But it was not to the rest of the constellation .

Speaker #5: And so we fixed that . And we're moving forward . Obviously there's some delays , but we're continuing on the plan that we outlined earlier .

Speaker #7: Understood . And I know you mentioned in the deck that next year will be fully operational . Can you just remind us what does that mean exactly ?

Speaker #7: How many satellites does it have to to have to be fully operational ?

Speaker #5: As I mentioned , as I mentioned before , our goal is to have at least 12 up by the end of next year .

Speaker #7: As I said , and then just if I could sneak one in on the on the financials , the the range for for for Q is is quite wide .

Speaker #7: So if we want to kind of take that as a jumping off point , what are sort of the the main factors in getting to the low end or the or the high end ?

Speaker #7: Is it is the government shutdown hurting that ? So yeah , just trying to get an understanding of understanding of what the what kind of the , the delta is next .

Speaker #5: Yeah , I think , Addison , I think maybe first off , as you've seen in the past couple of years , we've had tend to have really strong Q4 performance .

Speaker #5: And that's the case again this year . We are expecting a step up from contracts that we have in place and others that we expect to close shortly .

Speaker #5: The wide range . Really is just accounting for the timing of these deals . So we're seeing a lot of momentum . We've got we've got as Henry outlined , a number of large deals that are in play right now .

Speaker #5: And the range reflects really just where we are in the timing of those .

Speaker #2: Right .

Speaker #7: Thank you .

Speaker #5: Thank you .

Speaker #3: Your next question is from the line of Jeff Van Rhee of Craig-hallum . Please go ahead .

Speaker #8: Hey , good morning , Brian Henry . This is Daniel Hubschman on for Jeff . Just maybe if you could talk through us a little bit on the early access agreements .

Speaker #8: Just kind of where those are at , how those are progressing , those early access agreements for Gen three , and then a little bit more about the steps you see needing to take place to get those to a more significant revenue line .

Speaker #8: Just if that's all about size of the fleet you're deploying or about , you know , the customers internal processes or about them getting budget in place .

Speaker #8: Just how those will progress in the steps to get there .

Speaker #5: Yes . Good morning Daniel . Yeah . The early access program is progressing really well . The way that is playing out is we have customers that are coming online with six figure type early access agreements to to basically test and evaluate Gen three performance in their , in their operations .

Speaker #5: What we're seeing is . A couple of things . One is we're adding more of those types of agreements as we are still early in the deployment of Gen three .

Speaker #5: But we're also seeing an acceleration of some of those transitioning to longer term , much larger contracts . And then finally , I just as a reminder , as I indicated in our backlog , there's already pretty significant Gen three services in our backlog as we continue to deploy the constellation .

Speaker #5: So all in all , we're very pleased at the momentum we have with bringing on new customers there , evaluation and our visibility into transitioning those customers into long term subscription revenue .

Speaker #8: Okay . That's helpful . And then on the to be clear on the 4 million of impact from LCL for August and September , is that's significant enough that , just to be clear , is that a total pause on the program right now , or is that just a significant reduction ?

Speaker #5: It's not a pause , and it's I wouldn't I'm not sure I would deem it as significant reduction at this point . The government made some adjustments to our contract to reflect the potential baseline budget that was submitted by the administration for fiscal year 26 .

Speaker #5: Keep in mind , the budget is not final , and we have seen marks from multiple committees to restore funding to the . Line in the budget , but we won't really know until the budget is finalized .

Speaker #5: These are reductions that we're experiencing . We're set to carry into Q2 of next year , which would align with timing of a CR and a final fiscal year 26 budget .

Speaker #8: Okay . That's helpful . And then maybe just on satellite sales , dedicated capacity , you know , how do you think about it ?

Speaker #8: But you know , those deals that you got with Indonesia and India , you know , in terms of dedicated Gen three capacity , if you could talk to us a little .

Speaker #8: I mean , those are large kinds of opportunities . Talk to us a little bit about the pipeline for those kinds of opportunities and how go to market is progressing or evolving in that area .

Speaker #5: Yeah , I would say , as I mentioned in my remarks , the the demand for those types of solutions is growing very rapidly .

Speaker #5: We have a significantly growing pipeline for those types of arrangements . I think what we're also seeing is building on the success of Gen three , the interest is increasing as we're demonstrating significant performance for this class of satellite , both in terms of image quality and economics .

Speaker #5: So we see as we continue to deploy Gen three and also demonstrate Gen three's performance with our AI capabilities , that these these types of opportunities will continue to expand and will and will begin to continue to capture more contracts that were similar to what we announced in India and Indonesia .

Speaker #8: All right , that's it . Thanks , Brian .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Daniel .

Speaker #3: Your next question comes from the line of Timothy Horan of Oppenheimer . Your line is open .

Speaker #9: Hi , guys . Thanks for the questions . Can you just give us the number ? How many satellites did you actually have in operation at the end of the quarter ?

Speaker #9: And you know , what are you expecting here by the end of the year ? And if you can give us , you know , a rough guess on the first quarter , it would be helpful .

Speaker #5: Yeah . Right now we have two gen threes and 11 Gen two . So we got 13 satellites on orbit . As I mentioned , we have another satellite at the launch pad .

Speaker #5: And another one coming out of production later this year . So . The Gen twos that we have up on orbit are continuing to perform well .

Speaker #5: They'll carry well into next year , not longer . And the Gen two at the early gen three that we help are performing well as well .

Speaker #5: So we'll just continue a regular cadence of Gen three launches going into 26 .

Speaker #9: So you think about two per quarter is still a relatively good guide.

Speaker #5: That's a reasonable assumption . Keep in mind we have to deal with timing of launches and those types of things which are normal course .

Speaker #5: .

Speaker #9: Twos. What's how much longer? You, what's the cadence of them kind of coming down?

Speaker #5: As I mentioned , the you know , those were deployed in sequence . And so . We expect at least half of the satellites are up there will will still be in service by the end of next year .

Speaker #9: Okay . Sorry . Thanks . And then professional engineering services were very strong in the fourth quarter last year . So should we assume a kind of a similar rebound of this year .

Speaker #9: And I guess somewhat related to that , to like India , Indonesia and India , you know , contracts . When do they start kicking in .

Speaker #9: And you know , where does that revenue kind of show up in the line ? Items ? Thanks .

Speaker #5: Yeah . Well , yeah , you can expect similar type of trend that you saw last year in Q4 with respect to Indonesia and the India contracts .

Speaker #5: We're recognizing revenue as those programs progress . So there's that's kind of a smooth ramping of revenue from those programs .

Speaker #9: Got it . Very helpful . And so what are you assuming for the government budget for the your fourth fourth quarter guide ? And going into , you know , going into next year in your in your guide , I guess for the fourth quarter ?

Speaker #9: Yeah , yeah .

Speaker #5: As I , as I , as I mentioned her responded in the , in the prior question , we the program in particular has been set up at the levels that are at now through Q2 of next year .

Speaker #5: And that's what we expect in our planning for Q4 and into the early half of next year .

Speaker #9: Thank you . Very helpful . And just lastly , I know you kind of mentioned on it and so on that point on EOC .

Speaker #9: So there could be upside if the budget is approved . Do the trends I mean , would you expect if the budget is approved , there could be .

Speaker #9: Yeah , I guess a step up there .

Speaker #5: There could be , as I mentioned , you know , we're seeing positive activity out of Congress in the marks to this budget to restore the funding .

Speaker #5: So so we're we're we think that could be a positive upside next year . But we'll have to wait and see what actually comes out in the budget .

Speaker #9: And I think you said International's half the revenues . What can you say what ? That was a year ago .

Speaker #5: I think a year ago it was 60 to 75 . US government was 60 to 75% .

Speaker #2: 6040 .

Speaker #5: 60 , 40 . Yeah .

Speaker #9: Got it , got it . And then last thing I know , you kind of touched on it also just how's the pipeline looking now I guess qualitatively , you know , maybe just not quantitatively , you know , are you talking to a large increase in new customers and , you know , are these customers willing to spend , you know , much ?

Speaker #9: Well , can you charge them much more per image than you had kind of historically ? Thanks .

Speaker #5: Yeah . The quality the quality of the pipeline is excellent . Types of customers that we're engaged with . And then the scope of services that range from long term Gen three subscription services to these types of sovereign programs that we're successfully executing on in places like India and Indonesia .

Speaker #5: So I'll say both quantitatively and qualitatively , we're very pleased with where the pipeline is and how it's growing .

Speaker #9: Thanks , guys . Appreciate it .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Tim .

Speaker #3: Your next question is from the line of Austin Moller of Canaccord Genuity . Please go ahead .

Speaker #10: Hi . Good morning , Brian and Henry . Just my first question here . Does the shutdown affect the timing of government customers being able to use the early access program for Gen three ?

Speaker #5: No , it's not affected at all . As we mentioned , we closed a seven figure contract recently for the government to begin accessing Gen three .

Speaker #5: So that's that's moving ahead .

Speaker #10: Okay . And you've already done this with some customers . But how do you think about the Tam opportunity for building and operating exclusive remote sensing satellites for them as a service versus building the satellites for your own fleet .

Speaker #10: And then providing customers with access to a specter subscription .

Speaker #5: I think we're seeing pretty strong demand for both . There's there's really there's really a couple different models . One is where customers want to own the satellites , but we fly them for them using our spectra platform and ground network .

Speaker #5: And that is a form of a sovereign capability . And then there's another variant where where it's fully owned and operated and run within a customer's environment .

Speaker #5: And then you have a hybrid approach where customers are . Buying satellites from us through one of those first two models , but also bundling in subscription access to our Gen three commercial constellation .

Speaker #5: So we're finding that what customers are finding attractive is they get the benefit of a sovereign capability very quickly , because we can pull satellites and deploy software that already exists .

Speaker #5: And then they get the benefit of our commercial constellation , which is providing very high frequency monitoring capability . Our we see the bundling of this as being pretty exciting opportunity for us .

Speaker #10: Excellent . That sounds super exciting . I'll pass it back there .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Austin .

Speaker #3: And your next question is from the line of Greg Burns of Sidoti . Please go ahead .

Speaker #11: Morning . Can you just talk about maybe some of the the non-government opportunities ? I know you you announced an expansion of a contract for Non-earth imaging .

Speaker #11: How much of an opportunity are , you know , incremental services like that for you . And , you know , how should we think about maybe some of the commercial opportunities for the business to to find a growth outside of the government marketplace ?

Speaker #5: Yeah , I think we're continuing to see traction on our non-earth imaging capability . We just renewed a seven figure contract subscription contract for that .

Speaker #5: I think relative to commercial . We'll look to see that starting to . Expand later next year as we get our baseline constellation deployed and are able to service those types of customers with high frequency Gen three capability .

Speaker #5: But for now , we're still we're staying highly focused on this opportunity in the US and international government sector .

Speaker #11: Okay . And then just in terms of the the guidance , I know you maintained the ranges , but should we be thinking about you coming in towards the low end of those ranges ?

Speaker #11: I mean , is the are the top end still feasible or is it you , you know , how should we think about that just because it implies a pretty significant step up into the in the fourth quarter ?

Speaker #5: It does. And as I said, you know, this is pretty consistent in the way that we've performed in the fourth quarter over the past couple of years.

Speaker #5: We are expecting a major step up from contracts that we already have in place . You've seen some of the announcements and then we are working a number of fairly large contracts right now that we expect to close shortly .

Speaker #5: The wide range really is accounting for the timing of these deals . So that's that's why we're maintaining that range at this point .

Speaker #11: Okay . And are the step ups tied to the Gen three satellites . Like do you need to launch like is that . The the trigger like getting the the the Gen three up and orbit .

Speaker #5: No I don't believe any of the deals that we have in play right now are reliant on us to launch satellites in the coming months .

Speaker #11: Okay . Thank you .

Speaker #3: And a reminder before we continue on to the next question , if you would like to join the queue , please press Star One on your telephone keypad and your next question is from the line of Dave Storms of Stonegate .

Speaker #3: Please go ahead .

Speaker #12: Good morning and thank you for taking my questions . Just want to start by asking if you could give us a little more detail on the sales that you're expecting in the fourth Q that will get you the guidance .

Speaker #12: Is that expected to continue to be primarily international ? Is there any Gen three versus Gen two components , any more detail like that would be great .

Speaker #5: Yeah . Good morning Dave . Yeah I think primarily these are international deals . We are seeing . We have a lot of opportunities .

Speaker #5: The US government that are are in that are active right now . But that's been slowed due to the shutdown . But the the range that we're talking about is primarily tied to to international contracts .

Speaker #12: Perfect . And just thinking about those international contracts , should we expect you know , if your backlog right now is about 9010 international versus domestic .

Speaker #12: But historically revenues have been , you know , 40 , 60 international versus domestic . Where do you think that normalizes out at on a revenue level ?

Speaker #12: Do you think it shakes out to more 50 over 50 in the near future , or do you think international continues to grow at proportionally ?

Speaker #5: Well , right now we're about 50 over 50 coming out of the third quarter . From what we can see in our backlog and the pipeline , we're expecting the international to continue its growth .

Speaker #5: And that trend and 26 will likely outpace the contribution from the US government .

Speaker #12: Understood . Appreciate that . And then just one more . If I could , thinking about the software side of Gen three . What are you seeing in terms of attracting and retaining AI talent as you continue to put these satellites up in the air ?

Speaker #5: Yeah , we've been very successful in attracting AI talent . Dave , as you know , you know , we've been investing in our AI capabilities , infrastructure .

Speaker #5: Training and model development and deployment in the real time environments . Now , for ten years . And we built a proprietary capability that's a competitive advantage .

Speaker #5: And you can see that playing out as we're winning . We're successfully winning contracts based on that capability . At a point when we see others just outsourcing their AI to third party platforms .

Speaker #5: So we feel that when you combine this proprietary AI , which is very high performance in real time with the satellite constellation , it's a really significant differentiator in the market .

Speaker #5: And we're bundling those things together . And we're getting very positive response from customers for that capability .

Speaker #3: And your next question is from the line of Caleb Henry of Quilty Space . Please go ahead .

Speaker #7: Hi . Good morning . Thanks for the .

Speaker #4: Questions .

Speaker #7: First one is can you talk about how the average contract value for Gen three compares to Gen two ? are you seeing , I assume because of the international mix , mostly new customers or are we talking about existing customers upgrading more so .

Speaker #5: Yeah , I think what we're experiencing is we're seeing both in the contracts we're winning and the deals that are in our pipeline is a pretty market step up in the overall contract values , both in terms of the size of the contracts and the duration .

Speaker #5: They're all tending to be And Type arrangements . So . And we're you know , I think again , gen Gen two was an exceptional capability to demonstrate the performance of a high frequency constellation .

Speaker #5: Now , when you bring in very high resolution with the type of AI with a satellite of this performance and economics , the attractiveness of that is being reflected in the pipeline and the structure of these deals .

Speaker #7: Can you talk about how revenue recognition compares for international customers versus US government ? Is that something that's roughly the same speed , or is that faster or slower with different compliance requirements ?

Speaker #5: I don't think there's a difference between us and international . It's just dependent on the structure of the contract . Imagery tends to be very stable as a subscription , and then we've always had these other projects under our professional engineering and services line that that tend to be milestone driven , but I don't know .

Speaker #5: Henry , do you want to comment on that ?

Speaker #2: Yeah . I mean , whether it's an international contract or US government , it's imagery and analytics . Revenues tend to be .

Speaker #6: Subscription based . So kind of smooth and easy to predict . The the professional engineering services , as Brian said , they tend to be more milestone and lumpier and those tend to be more internationally focused .

Speaker #7: Okay . Thanks . And then how are you thinking about leverage and what do you have in terms of a mid-term target ? There ?

Speaker #6: I mean , you know , we just raised the the convertible note and we're quite comfortable with the liquidity that we have on on the books at the moment .

Speaker #6: So I think we're in a pretty good position at the moment .

Speaker #7: All right . Those are my questions . Thank you .

Speaker #5: Thanks , Caleb .

Speaker #3: And at this time there are no further questions . This does conclude black Skies third quarter 2020 earnings conference call . Thank you for joining the call today .