Fifty-five years ago – on June 16 – Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman and first civilian to travel to space. A 26-year-old textile worker from a small town outside Moscow, Tereshkova broke down barriers for future generations of women to enter the space industry. Reflecting on her journey, she famously remarked: […]
One of Planet’s key tenets of diversity and inclusion is the idea of “leading from the top.” In practice, that means our executive leadership and Board of Directors leverages expertise from a variety of perspectives. When it came to adding a new perspective to Planet’s Board of Directors, we didn’t have to […]
Over the past few years, diversity and inclusion in the workplace has moved from niche, issues-oriented topics to mainstream discourse. As someone who has worked in the space, it is a welcome change. But as with anything that generates buzz, the hard work begins when companies translate value statements into concrete action. […]
In 1969, a well blew out off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. Miles of beaches, filled with animal and human life covered in oily sludge, captivated public interest and galvanized the local community to take action. One year later, in part through the efforts of the Santa Barbara community, we celebrated […]
Last fall, Planet completed Mission 1: imaging the Earth’s entire landmass every single day. It was a landmark achievement and a first in the history of humanity. But the big question on everyone’s minds since has been, Now what? We’ve kept intentionally quiet over the past few months, but today, we’re ready […]
Hurricane Harvey may have faded from view, but we’re just beginning to understand how historic it really was. A new report from the National Hurricane Center, concludes that Harvey broke the record for the most rainfall from a tropical system – 50+ inches – and ranks as the second costliest storm in the […]
This past week, nearly 25,000 scientists, students, and professionals gathered in New Orleans, Louisiana for the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world – the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. This annual conference brings together the best and brightest minds in pursuit of high quality science, knowledge and a […]
When Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Houston earlier this month, Slingshot Aerospace, a Planet Application Developer Program partner, leapt into action. Working with Team Rubicon and the BAE Systems Geospatial eXploitation Products™ (GXP®), Slingshot was able to use its flood detection algorithms on up-to-date satellite imagery to determine the extent of the […]
All the way back in 2005, as our 6-person team was preparing to launch Google Maps, we were starting to look at what we would do after the product was launched. The roadmap I had started out with (in late 2002) was clear enough: start out with a high quality interactive 2D […]
Last month I had the privilege of watching the North American total solar eclipse with some current and former Planet employees from my family’s home in Payette Idaho; which happened to be right in the path of totality. Don’t worry, that telescope had a solar filter! Image: Chandler Abraham While Planeteers all […]
