Planet FAQ

Planet was founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists.

On December 8, 2021 Planet became a public benefit corporation trading on the New York Stock Exchange as PL.

Planet is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). Our PBC purpose is “to accelerate humanity toward a more sustainable, secure, and prosperous world, by illuminating environmental and social change." As a PBC, Planet’s mission will be encoded into our corporate DNA, obligating the directors to stay true to our mission as part of their fiduciary duty to our stockholders. Planet will continue to bring value commercially, socially and environmentally.

A PBC is different from a B-Corp because “B Corps” have applied for certification by a nonprofit called B Lab. We don’t currently have plans to apply for certification. You can learn more about PBC and B-Corps here.

Planet is growing and has over 600 full-time employees. We are headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with additional offices in Berlin and Washington, D.C.

The number of satellites that Planet has in orbit changes often as our satellites approach their end of life and new satellites are launched to replenish the fleet. Since we launched our first satellite in 2013, we’ve successfully deployed 462 satellites. Today we have approximately 200 satellites in orbit - a number we expect to maintain going forward - including our Dove and SkySat constellations that are capturing over 25 terabytes of imagery each day.

Planet is a data company. We offer subscription services to our imagery and imagery products. Our licensed imagery products include global, daily 3-5 meter per pixel resolution imagery as well as taskable rapid revisit 50cm pixel resolution imagery. We also offer a platform and API for computer vision-based analytics.

We currently serve more than 34,000 users, 700 customers, and 200 partners. Planet is a leading provider of geospatial data for use in agriculture, government, and commercial mapping, and is seeing customer growth in new markets such as insurance, commodities, and finance.

Space debris is an important subject that we care deeply about. Planet is committed to ensuring our satellites do not further complicate the issue. Planet has purposely chosen to orbit its satellites at lower altitudes to both avoid the congested higher altitudes and to ensure timely and safe deorbiting of our satellites when their end of life is reached. By staying out of high traffic altitudes and ensuring timely deorbiting, Planet does not contribute to long term space debris.

Planet’s imagery that is posted online via our owned media channels (i.e., Planet.com, social media and in the press) is done so under creative common CC-BY-NC-SA. Under this license, you are free to share and adapt our imagery as long as you correctly attribute it to Planet (e.g. ©Planet Labs PBC, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0), and properly indicate any change that is made to the imagery. The imagery may not be sold or commercialized under this creative commons license, but interested parties can reach out to images@planet.com to discuss licensing our imagery data for commercial purposes.

For imagery licensed under a creative commons license, see paragraph above.

For imagery licensed pursuant to a commercial license, please refer to the attribution requirements as set forth in your license agreement.

At Planet, we hire people who are committed to our mission and are the best at what they do. Visit our careers page to learn more about open positions.

Yes, Planet has a number of patents and applications, both in the U.S. and abroad which cover a range of developments for our satellites, platform, and products. For a list of U.S. patents, please seeplanet.com/patents/.

Planet collaborates with journalists, think tanks, and non-university research organizations through its Media and Think Tank Program. This program provides accredited news outlets and research organizations with access to commercial satellite imagery for their use in public reporting and analysis. Many of these organizations are paying Planet customers and Planet supports select other organizations with one-off imagery needs on a complimentary basis.

Yes. As with all potential customers, Planet conducts compliance screens against relevant sanctions lists. We also make every effort to ensure that we are working with trusted entities that are committed to journalistic and research integrity, and have a proven track record of working responsibly with satellite imagery and other data sources. Should credible concerns arise regarding a news outlet or research organization's use of our images and products, Planet's Ethics Committee and, if necessary, executive team will conduct an immediate and thorough review of the relevant concerns. Depending on the outcome of this review, Planet reserves the right to revoke access or terminate a user's contract.

Information derived from Earth observation data can serve as a unique source of factual information to help understand events in remote regions or within dangerous areas - like conflict zones - where journalists and the public have limited access. Additionally, we believe that increased visibility can lead to de-escalation and support better decision making during fast-paced and complex situations.

We endeavour to closely monitor the provision of imagery of conflict areas to reduce the potential for misuse and abuse - including risk posed to civilians and military personnel, which may include discussions amongst our leadership team and review by our Ethics Committee and cross-functional rapid response team. When appropriate, adjustments are made to ensure we're able to provide trusted, timely imagery in a compliant and responsible way. This is core to our mission and business.