The American Satellite Company Photographing Earth’s Landmass Every Single Day

Tesla investors could track daily activity at Elon Musk's Nevada Gigafactory—from space! (Planet)
Planet Labs, Inc. (formerly Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American private Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, CA. The company designs and manufactures Triple-CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are then delivered into orbit as passengers on other rocket launch missions.



Analyzing the imagery over time promises to unlock critical information about the economy and the environment for Planet’s customers, which range from investors to activists. It’s also a milestone in humanity’s ongoing efforts to understand the planet it calls home.
Last year, Planet said it was photographing a third of the world’s land each day. In February of this year it launched 88 satellites on an Indian rocket, and last week it launched 10 more satellites on an Orbital ATK rocket from California. Most of the images they take are at a resolution of three meters (10 feet) per pixel. By taking images daily, the company can track changes in the physical world, like the one below,

Three images of Mount Dukono located in the northern part of Halmahera island, Indonesia. Due to the Dove satellites orbiting in 'flocks', it's possible to make daily or even hourly image updates of the earth's surface.

Planet’s imagery can track the effects of sudden events like Hurricane Harvey or long-term problems like California’s drought, among many other applications.

The Planet Company is seven years old and launched its first satellites only in 2013, but it now has more commercial satellites in orbit than any other: 182 of its Dove satellites, each of which weighs 5 kg (11 lb), plus 18 larger satellites that it acquired by buying two other earth-imaging companies.

Planet’s speed and fundraising success allowed it to get ahead of a potential glut of competitors by buying them out. It purchased a satellite constellation from the German firm Blackbridge in 2015 and bought TerraBella, formerly SkyBox, from Google in 2016. These satellites take sharper pictures than the Doves, at one meter per pixel.