Planet
Soyuz launches 73 satellites
A Soyuz rocket successfully launched 73 satellites, including spacecraft for four companies’ cubesat constellations, July 14.
On-orbit operations the next frontier for space, experts say
Operating while in orbit is the next big challenge for the space sector, be it manufacturing, assembly, satellite servicing, or debris removal, experts said.
Planet ground station caught in Canadian regulatory limbo
As Planet prepares to complete its initial constellation of remote sensing satellites, a ground station it built in northern Canada to communicate with those spacecraft remains offline because of delays in receiving a government license there.
Planet adding its imagery to Harris ENVI platform
Planet announced plans June 5 to offer data from its constellation of global Earth-imaging cubesats through Harris Geospatial’s ENVI desktop platform, which means customers will be able to use the data with ENVI image-analysis software to detect day-to-day changes, classify objects and extract geographic features.
Planet confirms Google stake as Terra Bella deal closes
As Planet announced it has completed its acquisition of rival satellite imaging company Terra Bella April 18, it confirmed that Google is now a shareholder in Planet as part of that deal.
Planet unveils satellite imagery online tool
Planet, the San Francisco startup that began building a constellation five years ago to offer frequently updated Earth imagery, took a major step towards achieving that goal March 10 when it unveiled Planet Explorer Beta, an online geospatial data tool.
Planet to acquire Terra Bella from Google
Commercial remote sensing company Planet announced Feb. 3 it was acquiring rival Terra Bella from Google for an undisclosed sum, bringing together what the companies believe are complementary capabilities to image the Earth from space.
A Planet-Terra Bella merger would make sense, industry watchers say
Rumors began circulating in December that two leaders in the small satellite Earth imaging field were on the brink of deal, when employees of Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Terra Bella began visiting the offices of San Francisco-based Planet. Although the two companies have not confirmed an agreement, Bloomberg reported Jan. 9 that Planet was in talks to acquire Terra Bella, the Mountain View, California company formerly known as Skybox Imaging.
DigitalGlobe shrugs off WorldView-4 delay and Planet’s NGA contract
Geospatial imagery and services provider DigitalGlobe on Oct. 25 reported increased revenue and gross profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 with a surprisingly large increase in commercial business.
India’s PSLV launches Cartosat-2C and 19 small satellites, including 13 commercial U.S. spacecraft
India’s PSLV rocket on June 22 delivered the Indian Cartosat-2C high-resolution optical Earth observation into a 507-kilometer polar low Earth orbit along with 19 smaller satellites including 13 U.S. commercial spacecraft.
