On September 2nd, 2020 (September 3rd, 2020 UTC), the Vega rocket successfully lofted 26 SuperDoves, Flock 4v, on Arianespace’s VV16 SSMS-POC flight, along with several other small satellites. The first 14 SuperDoves were successfully deployed into an approximately 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit, and Planet’s mission operations team is already shepherding those satellites […]
On July 4, 2020 (July 5 local time in New Zealand), Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket carrying Planet’s Flock 4e (five SuperDoves) suffered an anomaly preventing the successful launch and deployment of the satellite payloads. While it’s never the outcome that we hope for, the risk of launch failure is one Planet is […]
This June and July will be busy times for the Launch and Satellite Operations teams at Planet. In addition to the successful launch of three new SkySats this past Saturday (with three more launching this summer), we have another five SuperDoves (Flock 4e) launching on Rocket Lab’s “Pics or It Didn’t Happen” Electron launch later […]
In February, one SuperDove was deployed into a space a little closer to home than usual—in the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. However, in response to COVID-19, the museum temporarily closed soon after our SuperDove was put on display. That said, today is World Art […]
Planet launches every three to six months to keep its constellation of Earth imaging satellites replenished and flying the latest and greatest technologies. Following on the heels of the successful launch of Flock 4p in November of 2019, Planet’s first launch of 2020 will be on Arianespace’s European-made Vega rocket, a first […]
Coastal wetlands, especially salt marshes, store vast amounts of terrestrial carbon both above and belowground. Conserving and restoring them can help sequester such carbon, but sea-level rise and other anthropogenic threats risk liberating these long-term carbon stores to the atmosphere where they would contribute to climate change. Gwen Miller, a Ph.D. Student […]
Twelve of Planet’s latest-generation SuperDoves, Flock 4p, are scheduled for launch on November 20, 2019, joining the 26 SuperDove prototypes already in orbit. This Flock will hitch a ride on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As […]
Satellite-derived bathymetry has numerous applications, including enhanced mapping and classification of bathymetric features such as coral reefs and seagrass meadows, as well as use in maritime navigation and coastline infrastructure. Dimitris Poursanidis from the Foundation for Research and Technology in Hellas, with colleagues from the German Aerospace Centre, used Planet’s Dove images […]
Globally, landslides kill ~5,000 people per year. If landslides—including rock falls, mudslides and other surface failures—can be better predicted, these deaths could be avoided. Landslides are highly heterogeneous, both spatially and temporally. They are more common in the steep, mountainous regions of the Earth, but also more frequent during particular seasons due […]
Temporal resolution is one of four axes by which one may judge the value of a remote sensing data source. Unlike spatial, spectral and radiometric resolution, temporal resolution can be used to decompose the day-to-day dynamics of ecosystems, revealing their phenology—the natural processes by which ecosystems (particularly vegetation) change over time. A […]
