During the “Small Satellite GNSS, Earth Observation, and Sensing Data Systems” session at SATELLITE 2020, demand for cost-efficient launches and granular data insights was front and center.
Planet Co-Founder and CSO Robbie Schingler described challenges of rapid satellite obsolescence: “Our second flock of satellites — we finished all 26 ready to go weeks before delivery, we felt really good about it. But then the launch was delayed and by the time it happened we were six months later, two generations behind. So we adjusted processes to manufacture satellites right before we would deliver them.”
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Loft Orbital Co-Founder and COO Alex Greenberg said the industry is easier to enter now: “Today we’re really benefiting from a lot of the investments that a lot of people before us had to trudge through. The investment in megaconstellations and cubesats would generate a proliferation of cheap busses. We want to develop products that require very little customization on those platforms.”
Greenberg explained Loft’s value proposition: “I saw that with the data they were collecting there was a lot of value in the data itself, but what was missing was being a platform for anyone who desired to be a data company.” The company announced a $13 million raise for a total of $20 million to develop its constellation.
Schingler was optimistic about remote sensing adoption: “We’ve gone to space over 26 different times. All of us in the remote sensing community feel like we’ve been on the cusp for many, many years. We’re seeing adoption much faster in areas that don’t currently use geospatial data, because they don’t have legacy systems.” VS
