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47-511: GeoEye-1 is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite owned by Maxar Technologies (formerly DigitalGlobe), launched in September 2008. The satellite was acquired in the 2013 purchase of GeoEye . On 1 December 2004, General Dynamics C4 Systems announced it had been awarded a contract worth approximately US$ 209 million to build the OrbView-5 satellite. Its sensor is designed by

94-532: A public benefit corporation and formally changed its name to Planet Labs PBC. The stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 8, 2021. After the merger, Planet had more than $ 500 million in capital and about 190 satellites in orbit. The company expected it to take the next few years until they get to cashflow breakeven, funding their operations with $ 200 million from the aforementioned $ 500 million (the rest $ 300 million forming

141-448: A "strategic warchest"). At the time of the merger, the company had over 600 customers (most customers, 90%, are annual subscriptions to Planet's data service) and it generated $ 113 million in revenue in 2020. At the time of the merger, Planet aimed to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis by early 2025, and to grow its annual revenue to nearly $ 700 million by early 2026. Planet Labs has contracts to supply imagery to various agencies of

188-528: A California garage. Planet Labs launched two demonstration CubeSats , Dove 1 and Dove 2 , in April 2013. Both Dove 1 (aboard Antares 110 rocket) and Dove 2 (aboard a Soyuz Rocket) were placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit . Dove 3 and Dove 4 were launched in November 2013. In June 2013, it announced plans for Flock-1 , a constellation of 28 Earth-observing satellites. The Flock-1 CubeSats were brought to

235-517: A January 2021 launch of 48 Planet SuperDoves, the company operated a global constellation of over 200 active satellites. In July 2021 Planet Labs announced that they plan to become a public company and list on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with the SPAC DMY Technology Group Inc IV. The deal would value Planet at US$ 2.8B. The business combination was completed on December 7, 2021. Planet registered as

282-510: A batch of its Starlink communications satellites. SkySats 19, 20 and 21 were launched on August 18, 2020 on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. This completed the SkySat fleet of 21 high-resolution satellites. When launched, the SkySat constellation was orbiting at an altitude of 450 kilometres (280 mi) and has a multispectral, panchromatic, and video sensor. It has a spatial resolution of 0.9 metres in its 400–900 nm panchromatic band, making it

329-672: A ground station, by means of a frame image sensor . The images gathered by Doves , which can be accessed online and some of which are available under an open data access policy, provide up-to-date information relevant to climate monitoring, crop yield prediction, urban planning, and disaster response. With acquisition of BlackBridge in July 2015, Planet Labs had 87 Dove and 5 RapidEye satellites launched into orbit. In 2017, Planet launched an additional 88 Dove satellites, and Google sold its subsidiary Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs. By September 2018,

376-572: A height of about 400 kilometres (250 mi) and provide imagery with a resolution of 3–5 metres (9.8–16.4 ft) and envisaged environmental, humanitarian, and business applications. RapidEye was a five-satellite constellation producing 5 metres (16 ft) resolution imagery that Planet acquired from the German company BlackBridge. The satellites were built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Guildford , subcontracted by MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) of Richmond, Canada. Each satellite

423-506: A nano-satellite. Mr. Kuolt's EP (Entrepreneurial Project) at Oxford University became the original business plan for Planet. The initial goal of the company was to make use of information gathered from space to help with life on Earth. The group of scientists considered the problem with most satellites to be their large and clunky form, prompting them to build inexpensive and compact satellites to be manufactured in bulk, called CubeSats. The small group began building Planet's first satellite in

470-521: A press conference. However, the satellite continued with normal operations shortly thereafter, though with diminished simultaneous imaging-and-downlink capability for non-U.S. clients. Earth observation satellite The first occurrence of satellite remote sensing can be dated to the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 , by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Sputnik 1 sent back radio signals, which scientists used to study

517-468: A reduction of nearly 17% of its global workforce, equating to approximately 180 jobs. The company stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the layoffs were necessary to align resources with market opportunities, improve operational efficiency, and support long-term growth and profitability. The decision is expected to incur a one-off cost of around $ 9.5 million to $ 10.5 million. Planet's PlanetScope Dove satellite constellation

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564-540: A relatively low altitude. Most orbit at altitudes above 500 to 600 kilometers (310 to 370 mi). Lower orbits have significant air-drag , which makes frequent orbit reboost maneuvers necessary. The Earth observation satellites ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat of European Space Agency as well as the MetOp spacecraft of EUMETSAT are all operated at altitudes of about 800 km (500 mi). The Proba-1 , Proba-2 and SMOS spacecraft of European Space Agency are observing

611-519: Is classified in accordance with ITU Radio Regulations (article 1) as follows: Fixed service (article 1.20) The allocation of radio frequencies is provided according to Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations (edition 2012). In order to improve harmonisation in spectrum utilisation, the majority of service-allocations stipulated in this document were incorporated in national Tables of Frequency Allocations and Utilisations which

658-783: Is designed to observe Earth. By using several small satellites, CubeSats, the constellation produces three to five meters high resolution images of Earth. The flock collects images from latitudes that are within 52 degrees of Earth's equator. A large portion of the world's agricultural regions and population lie within the area imaged by the flock. Initially, the mission used the ISS ( International Space Station ) and different track launch vehicles to get in orbit. Planet's Dove satellites are CubeSats that weigh 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) (1000 times lower than other commercial imaging satellites), 10 by 10 by 30 centimetres (3.9 in × 3.9 in × 11.8 in) in length, width and height, orbit at

705-449: Is expected to consist of 32 spacecraft and will be based on a new design that includes Planet's next generation of imaging sensors, capable of capturing images with a 30 cm resolution. The constellation will have a revisit rate up to 10 times per day for most of the globe, up to 30 times per day at mid-latitudes. The first demonstrator satellite, Pelican-1, has been launched on 11 November 2023 on SpaceX Transporter-9 mission and wlll validate

752-495: Is in a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 681 km (423 mi) and an inclination of 98 degrees, with a 10:30 a.m. equator crossing time. GeoEye-1 can image up to 60 degrees off nadir . It is operated out of Dulles, Virginia . At the time of its launch, GeoEye-1 was the world's highest resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite. GeoEye-1 was manufactured in Gilbert, Arizona , by General Dynamics and

799-534: Is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends. The company designs and manufactures 3U- CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are then delivered into orbit as secondary payloads on other rocket launch missions. Each Dove is equipped with a high-powered telescope and camera programmed to capture different swaths of Earth. Each Dove Earth observation satellite continuously scans Earth , sending data once it passes over

846-524: Is with-in the responsibility of the appropriate national administration. The allocation might be primary, secondary, exclusive, and shared. However, military usage, in bands where there is civil usage, will be in accordance with the ITU Radio Regulations. Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc. ) is a publicly trading American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California . Their goal

893-544: The ITT Exelis . The satellite, now known as GeoEye-1 , was originally scheduled for launch in April 2008 but lost its 30-day launch slot to a U.S. government mission which had itself been delayed. It was rescheduled for launch 22 August 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. The launch was postponed to 4 September 2008, due to unavailability of the Big Crow telemetry-relay aircraft. It

940-689: The International Space Station in January 2014 and deployed via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in mid-February. The company planned to launch a total of 131 satellites by mid-2015. In January 2015, the firm raised $ 95 million in funding. As of May 2015, Planet Labs raised a total amount of $ 183 million in venture capital financing . In July 2015, Planet Labs acquired BlackBridge and its RapidEye constellation . On April 18, 2017, Google completed

987-477: The O3b mPOWER constellation. In August 2023, Planet cited "restructuring" as the reason for laying off 10% of its employees, about 120 individuals. CEO William Marshall released a statement saying, "I want to be clear that I am responsible for the decisions that led us here. I know this has significant effects on the lives of our team and their families, and for that I am sorry." In June 2024, Planet Labs announced

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1034-572: The Vega rocket 's seventh flight from Kourou , and six more SkySat satellites, along with four Dove CubeSats, were launched on a Minotaur-C rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 31 October 2017. In 2020, Planet lowered their constellation of 15 SkySats from an altitude of 500 kilometers to 450 kilometers to improve the resolution of orthorectified imagery from 80 centimeters to 50 centimeters per pixel. On June 13, 2020, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched SkySats 16, 17 and 18 along with

1081-439: The ionosphere . The United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency launched the first American satellite, Explorer 1 , for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on January 31, 1958. The information sent back from its radiation detector led to the discovery of the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts . The TIROS-1 spacecraft, launched on April 1, 1960, as part of NASA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) program, sent back

1128-558: The Earth from an altitude of about 700 km (430 mi). The Earth observation satellites of UAE, DubaiSat-1 & DubaiSat-2 are also placed in Low Earth orbits (LEO) orbits and providing satellite imagery of various parts of the Earth. To get global coverage with a low orbit, a polar orbit is used. A low orbit will have an orbital period of roughly 100 minutes and the Earth will rotate around its polar axis about 25° between successive orbits. The ground track moves towards

1175-557: The US government, including the FAS , NOAA , Oak Ridge , Sandia , the Bureau of Reclamation , and NASA . Planet Labs was founded in 2010 as Cosmogia by former NASA scientists Chris Boshuizen, Will Marshall, and Robbie Schingler, who teamed up with John Kuolt in 2011 during his studies at Oxford University with a thesis to leverage the processing power of mobile phones to power the avionics of

1222-559: The acquisition was thereafter renegotiated down by more than half, from $ 40M to $ 16M. According to Quartz, the executives of Boundless had failed to disclose details concerning work, or details concerning future work, with the NGA On 3 July 2020, it was mentioned in the news that the company had "more than 120" active satellites at the time "providing daily imaging coverage over all of the world's landmass". In August 2020, Planet completed its SkySat Constellation of 21 satellites by launching

1269-501: The company had launched a total of 298 satellites, 150 of which were still active. On December 18, 2018, Planet announced they were in the process of acquiring the St Louis company, Boundless Spatial, Inc., a geospatial data software company. Several weeks after their acquisition of Boundless, Planet's attorneys asserted that executives from Boundless had failed to disclose “information concerning material customer contracts,” and

1316-493: The company had launched nearly 300 satellites, 150 of which are active. In 2020, Planet Labs launched six additional high-resolution SkySats, SkySats 16–21, and 35 Dove satellites. Through a deal funded by Norway's Climate and Forests Initiative (NICFI), Planet and its partners Airbus and KSAT are providing access to high-resolution basemaps of 64 tropical countries to help combat deforestation. It also provides data to FAO 's Framework for Ecosystem Monitoring (Ferm). Following

1363-647: The current vegetation state to its long term average. For example, the 2002 oil spill off the northwest coast of Spain was watched carefully by the European ENVISAT , which, though not a weather satellite, flies an instrument (ASAR) which can see changes in the sea surface. Anthropogenic emissions can be monitored by evaluating data of tropospheric NO 2 and SO 2 . These types of satellites are almost always in Sun-synchronous and "frozen" orbits. A Sun-synchronous orbit passes over each spot on

1410-654: The final three SkySats on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In May 2022, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense ), a wholly-owned subsidiary of communications satellite owner and operator, SES , in partnership with Planet Labs, was awarded a US$ 28.96 million contract from NASA 's Communications Services Project for real-time , always-on low-latency connectivity services to NASA spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications, using SES's geostationary orbiting C-band satellites and medium Earth orbiting Ka-band satellites, including

1457-518: The first image was returned on 7 October of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Google , which had its logo on the side of the rocket, has exclusive online mapping use of its data. While GeoEye-1 is capable of imagery with details the size of 41 centimeters per pixel (16 in/px), that resolution was only available to the U.S. government . Google has access to details of 50 cm per pixel (20 in/px). Prior maximum commercial imagery

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1504-455: The first television footage of weather patterns to be taken from space. In 2008, more than 150 Earth observation satellites were in orbit, recording data with both passive and active sensors and acquiring more than 10 terabits of data daily. By 2021, that total had grown to over 950, with the largest number of satellites operated by US-based company Planet Labs . Most Earth observation satellites carry instruments that should be operated at

1551-460: The ground at the same time of day, so that observations from each pass can be more easily compared, since the Sun is in the same spot in each observation. A "frozen" orbit is the closest possible orbit to a circular orbit that is undisturbed by the oblateness of the Earth , gravitational attraction from the Sun and Moon, solar radiation pressure , and air drag . Terrain can be mapped from space with

1598-525: The ground using radio, but fell short of the idea of using satellites for mass broadcasting and as telecommunications relays. The onset of the Cold War prompted the rapid development of Satellite launch systems and camera technology capable of sufficient Earth observation to garner intelligence on enemy military infrastructure and evaluate nuclear posture. Following the U-2 incident in 1960, which highlighted

1645-728: The risks of aerial spying, the U.S. accelerated surveillance satellite programs like CORONA . Satellites largely replaced aircraft overflights for surveillance after 1960. A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth . These meteorological satellites, however, see more than clouds and cloud systems. City lights, fires , effects of pollution , auroras , sand and dust storms , snow cover, ice mapping, boundaries of ocean currents , energy flows, etc., are other types of environmental information collected using weather satellites. Weather satellite images helped in monitoring

1692-670: The sale of Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs. As part of the sale, Google acquired an equity stake in Planet and entered into a multi-year agreement to purchase SkySat imaging data. On January 21, 2018, a Dove Pioneer CubeSat was part of the payload of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket , the first orbital-entry craft launched from a privately owned and operated spaceport at Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand . In July 2018, Planet laid off somewhat less than ten percent of its workforce. In September 2018,

1739-467: The same orbital plane (at an altitude of 630 km), and together were capable of collecting over 4 million kilometres (2.5 × 10 ^  mi) of 5 metres (16 ft) resolution, 5-band color imagery every day. They collected data in the Blue (440–510 nm), Green (520–590 nm), Red (630–690 nm), Red-Edge (690–730 nm) and Near-Infrared (760–880 nm). The RapidEye constellation

1786-494: The size of a minifridge . The satellites are approximately 80 centimetres (31 in) long, compared to approximately 30 centimetres (12 in) for a 3U CubeSat, and weigh 100 kilograms (220 lb). The first SkySat satellite, SkySat-1, was launched on a Dnepr (rocket) from Yasny, Russia on 21 November 2013, and the second, SkySat-2, launched on a Soyuz-2 /Fregat rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on 8 July 2014. Four more SkySat units were launched on 16 September 2016, by

1833-402: The smallest satellite to be put in orbit capable of such high resolution imagery. The multispectral sensor collects data in blue (450–515 nm), green (515–595 nm), red (605–695 nm), and near-infrared (740–900 nm) bands, all at 2 metre resolution. The Pelican constellation is a constellation of Earth observation satellites to succeed the SkySat constellation. The constellation

1880-740: The use of satellites, such as Radarsat-1 and TerraSAR-X . According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Earth exploration-satellite service (also: Earth exploration-satellite radiocommunication service ) is – according to Article 1.51 of the ITU Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as: A radiocommunication service between earth stations and one or more space stations , which may include links between space stations, in which: This service may also include feeder links necessary for its operation. This radiocommunication service

1927-478: The volcanic ash cloud from Mount St. Helens and activity from other volcanoes such as Mount Etna . Smoke from fires in the western United States such as Colorado and Utah have also been monitored. Other environmental satellites can assist environmental monitoring by detecting changes in the Earth's vegetation, atmospheric trace gas content, sea state, ocean color, and ice fields. By monitoring vegetation changes over time, droughts can be monitored by comparing

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1974-445: The west 25° each orbit, allowing a different section of the globe to be scanned with each orbit. Most are in Sun-synchronous orbits . A geostationary orbit , at 36,000 km (22,000 mi), allows a satellite to hover over a constant spot on the earth since the orbital period at this altitude is 24 hours. This allows uninterrupted coverage of more than 1/3 of the Earth per satellite, so three satellites, spaced 120° apart, can cover

2021-552: The whole Earth. This type of orbit is mainly used for meteorological satellites . Herman Potočnik explored the idea of using orbiting spacecraft for detailed peaceful and military observation of the ground in his 1928 book, The Problem of Space Travel . He described how the special conditions of space could be useful for scientific experiments. The book described geostationary satellites (first put forward by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky ) and discussed communication between them and

2068-539: Was 60 cm (24 in). The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Google paid a combined US$ 502 million for the satellite and upgrades to GeoEye's four ground stations. In December 2009 GeoEye announced it had suspended imagery collections by GeoEye-1 for a few days, citing an irregularity in the downlink antenna. "The irregularity appears to limit the range of movement of GeoEye-1 's downlink antenna, which may in turn affect GeoEye-1 's ability to image and downlink simultaneously," GeoEye said at

2115-516: Was based on an evolution of the flight-proven SSTL-150 bus, measuring less than 1 cubic metre (35 cu ft) and weighing 150 kilograms (330 lb) (bus + payload) each. They were launched on 29 August 2008 on a Dnepr rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan . Each of RapidEye's five satellites contained identical Jena-Optronik Spaceborne Scanner JSS 56 multi-spectral pushbroom sensor imagers. The five satellites traveled on

2162-493: Was delayed again to 6 September because Hurricane Hanna interfered with its launch crews. The launch took place successfully on 6 September 2008 at 18:50:57 UTC. The GeoEye-1 satellite separated successfully from its Delta II launch vehicle at 19:49 UTC, 58 minutes and 56 seconds after launch. GeoEye-1 provides 0.41 m (16 in) panchromatic and 1.65 m (5.4 ft) multispectral imagery at nadir in 15.2 km (9.4 mi) swaths. The spacecraft

2209-645: Was officially retired in April 2020. SkySat is a constellation of sub-metre resolution Earth observation satellites that provide imagery, high-definition video and analytics services. Planet acquired the satellites with their purchase of Terra Bella (formerly Skybox Imaging), a Mountain View, California -based company founded in 2009 by Dan Berkenstock, Julian Mann, John Fenwick, and Ching-Yu Hu, from Google in 2017. The SkySat satellites are based on using inexpensive automotive grade electronics and fast commercially available processors, but scaled up to approximately

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