Nick Merski
Chief Operating Officer, BlackSky
Nick Merski oversees BlackSky’s engineering and product operations teams that designed, built and flies the company’s constellation — the distributed network of imaging satellites that power the industry’s most advanced commercial real-time space-based intelligence platform.
Merski’s critical leadership recently saw BlackSky through the build, launch and rapid commissioning of the company’s introduction of its first, third-generation satellite, which represented a pivotal moment for BlackSky by adding very high-resolution and SWIR imaging to its high-frequency, low latency monitoring constellation.
“I’m immensely proud of Nick and his team,” said Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO. “Their efforts will be central to growing BlackSky’s Gen-3’s constellation in the coming years and contribute directly to delivering the industry’s most advanced commercial space-based intelligence capabilities to our customers at disruptive speed, performance and economics.”
Why Watch
In 2025, Merski’s team will be focused on scaling the Gen-3 satellite offering by launching and commissioning several additional satellites that will integrate seamlessly into the company’s existing constellation. Merski uses his deep expertise as a former military officer and civil servant to solve complex challenges for U.S. and international government customers. Adding more Gen-3 satellites will improve value for customers by increasing revisit rates, reducing delivery latency, enhancing image quality and capacity and enabling new AI-derived insights.
“Getting the first Gen-3 on orbit and performing at such a high level was a huge accomplishment for our team,” he said. “Seeing the quality of the initial images and precision of the first analytics so soon after launch was truly inspiring. It shows our team built a highly advanced, customer-ready capability, and reflects BlackSky’s continued commitment to delivering industry-leading monitoring capabilities to our customers worldwide.”
Fun Fact: When not working, Merski loves getting outside with his family. Chances are he’s hiking, fishing or skiing. “And if it can’t be one of those, you’ll find me applying the best of my mediocre gardening skills to the yard,” he said.