The Earth-observing company Planet just inked its biggest deal yet.
San Francisco-based Planet announced today (Jan. 29) that it has signed a $230 million contract with an unnamed commercial partner in the Asia-Pacific region to build and deliver a fleet of its new, sharp-eyed Pelican satellites.
"This agreement represents a significant milestone for Planet; it is our largest contract to date and is a major step forward in what we see as a very large market opportunity," Planet CEO and Co-founder Will Marshall said in an emailed statement. "These types of partnerships are a win-win: Our partners gain critical satellite capabilities and priority access to leading-edge technology, while they help Planet accelerate key space programs and create synergistic benefits for all our customers," Marshall added.
Planet, which was founded in 2010, operates the world's largest network of Earth-imaging satellites. The most numerous and well-known of these are the SuperDoves, shoebox-sized cubesats whose photos have a resolution of about 10 feet (3 meters) per pixel.
Related: Planet's photos of Earth from space (gallery)
Also in Planet's stable are larger and sharper-eyed SkySats, which feature a resolution of about 1.6 feet (0.5 m) per pixel and can be actively trained on targets below. (The SuperDoves observe passively.)
The Pelican line is an evolved, more capable version of SkySat; the Pelicans will have a resolution of about 1 foot (0.3 m) per pixel and boast other advantages as well.
"Additionally, Planet has collaborated with NVIDIA to equip Pelican-2 with the NVIDIA Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics to power on-orbit computing — with the aim of vastly reducing the time between data capture and its availability for customers," Planet wrote in a December 2024 statement about the Pelican-2 satellite, which launched to orbit on Jan. 15 on SpaceX's Transporter 12 rideshare mission along with 36 SuperDoves and nearly 100 other payloads. (Pelican-1 was a technology demonstrator that launched in November 2023, on SpaceX's Transporter 9.)
"Pelican-2 is designed to rapidly convert precise spatial data into near-real-time insights by utilizing AI-powered solutions for use cases including object detection, vegetation and crop type classification, and disaster response," Planet added in the December statement.
Planet also built and operates a hyperspectral satellite called Tanager-1, which launched with 36 SuperDoves on Transporter 11 in August of last year. Tanager-1 studies Earth in more than 400 bands of light, including wavelengths invisible to the human eye.
The newly announced contract is the third "strategic space systems partnership" that Planet has signed in the last four years, the company said in today's announcement.
"Pursuant to the agreement, Planet will build and deliver a fleet constellation of new Pelican high-resolution satellites, securing certain capacity on the satellites for the partner, in addition to providing operational services," the company wrote in the emailed statement. "Furthermore, Planet will leverage the increased capacity of the expanded fleet to serve its own government and commercial customers around the world."
"Our trusted partners have long expressed interest in our proprietary space systems technology, and we’re proud to be able to fulfill their needs with our satellites and services," James Mason, Planet’s chief space officer, said in the same statement. "Our vertical integration and agile aerospace capabilities enable us to scale to customer and partner demand."
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
