Type Private Founded 29 December 2010 | Area served Worldwide | |
 | ||
Industry Spacecraft design
Robotic spacecraft
Earth observation satellite
Image processing Headquarters San Francisco, CA, U.S. Number of locations 4 offices (USA, Germany, Netherlands, Canada) Key people Will Marshall (CEO)
Robbie Schingler (President)
Tom Barton (COO) Founders Robbie Schingler, Will Marshall, Chris Boshuizen Profiles | ||
Planet labs stuff innovators 2015
Planet Labs, Inc. (formerly Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American Earth imaging private company based in San Francisco, CA. The company designs and manufactures Triple-CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are then delivered into orbit as passengers on other rocket launch missions. Each Dove Earth observation satellite continuously scans Earth, sending data once it passes over a ground station. Together, Doves form a satellite constellation that provides a complete image of Earth at 3-5 m optical resolution and open data access. Small size and a relatively low cost enable the company to quickly prototype and test new designs, while avoiding a loss of significant assets in a disaster. The images gathered by Doves provide up-to-date information relevant to climate monitoring, crop yield prediction, urban planning, and disaster response. With acquisition of BlackBridge in July 2015, Planet Labs had 87 Dove and 5 RapidEye satellites in orbit. In February 2017, Plant launched an additional 88 Dove satellites. On February 3, 2017, Google announced that it would sell its subsidiary Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs and enter into a multi-year agreement to purchase SkySat imaging data.
Contents
Gwf 2016 planet labs and disruptive business models
History
Planet Labs was founded in 2010 as Cosmogia by former NASA scientists Chris Boshuizen, Will Marshall, and Robbie Schingler.
It successfully launched two demonstration CubeSats, Dove 1 and Dove 2, in April 2013. Dove 3 and Dove 4 were launched in November 2013.
In June 2013, it announced plans for Flock-1, a constellation of 28 Earth-observing satellites.
The Flock-1 CubeSats were brought to the International Space Station in January 2014 and successfully deployed via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in mid-February. The company plans to launch a total of 131 satellites by mid-2015.
In March 2014 co-founder and CEO Will Marshall presented at the TED conference in Vancouver. In January 2015, the firm raised $95 million in funding. As of May 2015, Planet Labs raised a total amount of $183 million in venture capital financing.
In July 2015, Planet Labs acquired BlackBridge and its RapidEye constellation.
Satellite constellation
Flock-1 satellites are CubeSats that weigh 4 kg (1000 times lower than legacy commercial imaging satellites), 10x10x30 cm in length, width and height, orbit at a height of about 400 kilometres (250 mi) and provide imagery with a resolution of 3–5 m (9.8–16.4 ft) and envisaged environmental, humanitarian, and business applications.
The twenty Flock 2e 3U CubeSats were launched in 23 March 2016 on the Cygnus CRS OA-6 cargo mission.
Twelve Flock-2p Dove satellites each of which weighs just 4.7 kg were launched by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) on 22 June 2016. The PSLV-C34 that carried the 12 Dove satellites lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
On February 15, 2017, (03:58 GMT) Planet launched 88 satellites, which was the largest fleet of satellites to be launched in history. The Dove satellites, collectively known as Flock 3p, rode aboard an ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. They head to a morning crossing time, sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an approximate altitude of 500 kilometres (310 mi).