Launched from airplanes into very low-Earth orbit

Launched from airplanes, the very low-Earth orbit satellites aim to provide more extensive coverage than current eye-in-the-sky systems. DARPA says SeeMe needs to "address a change in the satellite build model from 'performance centric' to 'cost centric'" by relying on non-aerospace vendors -- even conforming to internationally accepted commercial packaging, transport, and storage methods, such as FedEx, for logistical ease.

As satellite cost goes down, DARPA says, the constellation size increases, and information delay request times due to satellite overpass and travel-time decrease.