Imagery and Sensing

Planet Labs will provide high-resolution satellite data to support the NATO Communications and Information Agency‘s (NCIA) Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program under a new contract the company announced Monday. The data, sourced from Planet’s SkySat system, will be used to track and analyze foreign military capabilities and activities, monitor military infrastructure, and assess...

The second batch of Maxar Intelligence WorldView Legion satellites are now in the commissioning phase after a SpaceX launch on Thursday morning.  SpaceX launched the two satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket early on Aug. 15 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Maxar confirmed after launch that the satellites are successfully communicating with...

GHGSat has contracted Space Flight Laboratory to build two additional greenhouse gas monitoring satellites for the company’s constellation.  The satellites, announced Monday, will be based on the SFL 15-kg NEMO satellite bus, the same platform used to build the first nine GHGSat spacecraft. SFL built GHGSat’s demonstration satellite which launched in 2016 and built eight...

Satellite data provider Umbra is expanding its business from selling imagery collected by its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, to selling the satellites to customers. Umbra announced its new Mission Solutions line on Wednesday.  The company said it is now offering governments and large multinational corporations the ability to purchase their own satellites, individual components...

Methane-tracking satellite operator GHGSat has completed an evaluation process to join NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program (CSDA). This will make GHGSat’s methane emissions data available for scientific research and non-commercial applications development through an IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contract. The CSDA program allows NASA to flexibly acquire data from commercial providers for its...

Planet Labs signed a seven-figure contract expansion with a U.S.-allied international government agency for SkySat satellite data.  Planet announced the SkySat expansion with the unnamed allied nation on Monday. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.  The SkySat fleet provides satellite imagery up to 50 cm resolution with the ability to have multiple revisits...

e-GEOS has won a new five-year contract from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which will enable better detection and measurement of ground movements from space. The contract is for the end-to-end implementation and operation of the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS). e-GEOS will lead an international consortium ‘ORIGINAL’ (OpeRatIonal Ground motion INsar Alliance) on the...

Maxar Intelligence released the first set of images from its new WorldView Legion satellites. The images released Thursday show the 30 cm-class imagery capabilities of the satellites, capturing views of San Francisco and Sacramento, California.  This is a major milestone for Maxar’s next-generation imagery constellation. These first two satellites launched in May after years of...

Planet Labs has signed a new seven-figure pilot program with an international ministry of defense (MoD) customer for PlanetScope data enhanced with SynMax artificial intelligence. Planet announced the deal with the unnamed customer on July 15.  Planet and SynMax are providing a maritime domain awareness solution for vessel detection and monitoring. The customer also expanded...

Commercial satellite radar providers are ready to meet the operational needs of U.S. government users but plans to develop a program of record for these capabilities in fiscal year 2026 are behind in finishing requirements and identifying funding, the U.S. chief for one of these companies said on Wednesday. Capella Space; a U.S. division of...