This report assesses the key risks facing U.S. commercial remote sensing firms. These companies aim to become an important part of the U.S. commercial remote sensing industry, which today largely consists of aerial data providers and the value-added firms that play an important role in converting raw imagery data into the products desired by customers. This report provides some much-needed perspective on how these risks, or at least our appreciation of them, have changed from the early 1990s when the U.S. government took important steps to encourage the commercialization of satellite remote sensing.