Significant investment levels required for design, manufacture, launch and operations of electro-optical satellites usually leads governments into initiating the financing of such space projects. Along government needs, there is commercial demand to goods and services obtained from these satellites. Since area of interest for both public and private end users usually differentiates noticeably and nature of orbital revolutions fit conveniently into serving these regional interests, it is a logical decision on the government side to task commercial entities for exploiting the excess capacity of these satellites to create return on investment.

Upon commissioning of the satellites, governments may select a commercializing entity and authorize it with distribution rights of the excess capacity as a percentage of available imaging time over global regions or may assign the right to image, collect and sell the imagery globally. Excess capacity may be a dominant portion of available imaging time depending on the area of interest of the end user. Modes of commercial operation may be based on either centralized tasking or regional tasking of the satellites.