Terra Bella

Iceye establishes U.S. office, considers U.S. manufacturing
Iceye, the Finnish radar satellite operator, opened a U.S. office in the San Francisco Bay Area led by Mark Matossian, who managed a series of aerospace programs at Google including the Earth-imaging venture Terra Bella.

Apple hires two former Google executives involved with satellite projects
Some analysts speculate that Apple is pursuing a broadband satellite constellation by backing proposals made by Boeing.

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 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.

Report: Google parent company looking to unload Terra Bella
Google acquired what was then known as Skybox Imaging in 2014 for an estimated $500 million but now appears interested in selling the company as it seeks to cut costs.

Spaceflight to launch Terra Bella satellites on Falcon 9 mission
Spaceflight Industries will launch multiple imaging satellites for Google-owned Terra Bella in 2017 as part of a “dedicated rideshare” Falcon 9 mission Spaceflight purchased from SpaceX last year.

Europe’s Vega launches 1 Peruvian and 4 Terra Bella Earth observation satellites
Europe’s Vega small-satellite launcher on Sept. 15 successfully placed five high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites — one for the Peruvian government and four for Google-owned Terra Bella — into low Earth orbit.

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.