Space Launch Complex 40 at Kennedy Space Center, with a Falcon 9 on the pad. © 2020, Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved.
AUTHOR PROFILE Mike Safyan
Curious Planeteer working to make the Earth's changes visible, accessible and actionable.

New Year, New Launches: 48 SuperDoves to Launch with SpaceX

News

Planet is rocketing into the new year with 48 SuperDoves, our Flock 4s, scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission. This rideshare mission launching out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida will deliver Flock 4s to a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 500 km altitude. These 48 SuperDoves bring improvements to image sharpness and quality, plus new spectral bands for analysis. With this launch of 8-band SuperDoves, Planet will continue to provide medium resolution multispectral imagery (3-5m) at a global scale to our customers worldwide.

This marks our sixth launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and our third launch on their smallsat rideshare program. Just last summer, we successfully launched six SkySats across two SpaceX Starlink rideshare missions and we’re excited to again fly on such a reliable and well-flown launch vehicle. 

Follow along on Planet’s Twitter for updates as the launch window nears. 

Ad astra! 

SpaceX Falcon 9. Image: SpaceX