Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic organization the Bezos Earth Fund is joining the investment coalition for the wildfire-monitoring FireSat constellation.
Bezos Earth Fund announced a $26 million investment in the non-profit Earth Fire Alliance and its FireSat program on Wednesday. The Earth Fire Alliance is a nonprofit coalition supported by Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and others.
This is the largest contribution to Earth Fire Alliance to date, and said to be the largest single philanthropic grant to wildfire detection.
The money will help fund the launch and operations of the first three FireSat satellites which are set to launch this summer. Muon Space developed and is building the satellites. The constellation is planned to be operational in the early 2030s with approximately 50 satellites.
The Earth Fire Alliance previously launched the FireSat Protoflight satellite, which showed first light images last year that demonstrated detecting fires as small as 5×5 meters.
“With the support of global, high-impact organizations like Bezos Earth Fund, alongside Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, other funders, and the wildfire community that helped shape this technology, Earth Fire Alliance and FireSat will bring critical new tools to firefighters, scientists, and policymakers in their efforts to strengthen wildfire resilience,” commented EFA Executive Director Brian Collins.
Via Satellite previously interviewed Collins for the On Orbit podcast about the Earth Fire Alliance’s mission.
The Bezos Earth Fund is a $10 billion philanthropic commitment aimed at protecting the Earth.
