Planet is excited to share the development of patented radio communication systems that include last-minute tasking capabilities and an improved data downlink solution. This capability uses crosslinks to task satellites within minutes, which can help customers working on use cases such as disaster relief, security, and civil government to speedily react to urgent events on the ground.

Leveraging our agile development process, we rapidly developed this technology and demonstrated with on-orbit tests the ability of this communication system to significantly reduce the time between a customer’s request to task a satellite, image acquisition, and insight delivery. Planet is utilizing its advanced Pelican satellites to test and validate these systems on-orbit.

C-Band Real Time Comms for Late Tasking

Central to our radio communication system is a Real Time Communications (RTComms) system, which is a C-band radio that supplements our ground station Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) infrastructure for high priority image tasking updates. This system is designed to enable global tasking of Planet’s system using existing infrastructure in a cost-effective manner.

Utilizing an array of small antennas working in tandem, RTComms achieves a larger field of view to a satellite relay in geostationary orbit (GEO), facilitating continuous, uninterrupted communications link availability through Planet’s satellite maneuvers in low Earth orbit (LEO). Although this technology is currently in the research & development phase, when it is operationalized and rolled out across the constellation, this capability is designed to substantially reduce the time elapsed between customer tasking order and image capture.

Hybrid Ka-band for Payload Downlink

Similar to the tasking radio, Planet has worked to develop a solution to provide data downlink opportunities globally re-using existing infrastructure to minimize new costs with deployment. The High Speed Downlink 3 (HSD3) system is our small satellite high-bandwidth data downlink pipeline, which can achieve speeds of up to 10 Gbps to Planet’s ground stations. This solution enables satellite-to-satellite communications links using the HSD3 hardware. Planet is also planning to integrate HSD3 with a higher power, mechanically steerable Ka antenna that will track the Ka-band Inter-Satellite Link (KaISL) relay satellites at increased data rates and the ability to simultaneously transmit and receive low latency, high priority imagery.

The Planet team has conducted initial ground demonstration tests with prototype hardware and incorporated lessons learned into flight hardware. Figure 1 shows C-Band antennas integrated on the Pelican-5 spacecraft during its preparation for launch on November 28, 2025. Figure 2 shows another C-Band antenna integrated elsewhere on the Pelican-5 spacecraft to provide a broad field of view. We have integrated multiple antennas on the spacecraft to help ensure the ability to command the spacecraft in a variety of orientations. Figure 3 shows the Pelican-7 vehicle with the Ka-Band HSD3 antenna and a C-Band antenna integrated while the vehicle is being prepared for launch and Figure 4 shows a detailed view of the space-to-ground Ka-Band antenna.

In bringing this capability online, Planet aims to better support customer needs at the pace of global change. Staying true to our agile aerospace ethos, we’re continuing to quickly develop and deploy new technologies on our spacecraft, setting new standards for innovation. We look forward to sharing more updates as these exciting new systems develop.

The technologies described, either alone or in combination with other technologies, are protected by patents in the US and elsewhere. This disclosure is provided to satisfy the virtual patent marking provisions of various jurisdictions including the virtual patent marking provisions of the America Invents Act. Additional information can be found at www.planet.com/patents/.

Forward-looking Statements

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