Planet Labs

Overview

Planet Labs PBC operates the largest commercial fleet of Earth observation satellites, imaging the planet's landmass every day. Founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, the company pioneered mass-produced CubeSats for persistent Earth monitoring and today flies roughly 200 spacecraft across four lines: the Dove/SuperDove constellation behind its daily PlanetScope feed, the SkySat high-resolution fleet acquired from Google in 2017, the next-generation Pelican tasking satellites, and the Tanager hyperspectral mission.

Planet sells daily medium-resolution imagery (about 3 m), high-resolution tasking down to 50 cm and, increasingly, AI-derived analytics to defense, intelligence, agriculture, forestry and civil-government customers. Applications run from crop monitoring and deforestation tracking to maritime domain awareness and early warning. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PL in December 2021 through a SPAC merger with dMY Technology Group IV.

Defense and intelligence demand has reshaped the business. A multi-year contract with the German government worth about €240 million ($280 million), signed in July 2025 and including dedicated Pelican capacity, sits alongside a NATO agreement and recurring U.S. work for the Department of Defense and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. In fiscal 2026, ended 31 January 2026, Planet reported record revenue of $307.7 million, up 26% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $15.5 million — its first full year of non-GAAP profitability — a backlog of about $900 million, up 79%, and $640.1 million in cash and short-term investments. First-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue reached a record $94.2 million, up 42%, and full-year guidance was raised to $425-441 million. The company employed roughly 1,000 people across 29 countries as of 31 January 2026.

Dove / SuperDove (PlanetScope)

The Dove line is Planet's daily global imaging backbone: 3U CubeSats measuring 10 x 10 x 30 cm, built in-house and flown in Sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 475 km. Around 200 spacecraft are operational, imaging at about 3 m ground sample distance; the current SuperDove generation carries eight spectral bands against the four (RGB + NIR) of earlier Doves. Because each satellite has a service life of only a few years, Planet refreshes the constellation in batches — a deliberate design choice that keeps sensor technology current. The commercial product derived from the fleet, PlanetScope, delivers analysis-ready daily mosaics through an API and web platform for time-series work, change detection and large-area monitoring.

SkySat

SkySat is Planet's high-resolution fleet, acquired from Google's Terra Bella subsidiary in 2017. Each satellite masses about 110 kg and delivers 50 cm panchromatic and 1 m multispectral imagery, plus short video clips, from mid-inclination and Sun-synchronous orbits between 450 and 500 km. The 21-satellite constellation supports tasked collection for defense, intelligence and commercial customers and offers multiple revisits per day over an area of interest. Pelican is progressively taking over this role as SkySats age out.

Pelican

Pelican is Planet's next-generation very-high-resolution tasking constellation, planned for up to 32 satellites. It delivers 50 cm ortho pansharpened, six-band multispectral imagery and cuts latency through inter-satellite links and downlinks of up to roughly 10 Gbps across a global ground station network. Pelican-1 flew as a technology demonstrator in November 2023; the constellation entered commercial service in 2025 and continues to expand, with Pelican-11 launched on 7 July 2026 and second-generation spacecraft entering service. Germany's multi-year contract includes dedicated Pelican capacity with direct downlink over designated European areas.

Tanager

Tanager is Planet's hyperspectral line, covering 400-2,500 nm in roughly 400 bands about 5 nm wide — a sensor built to detect methane and CO2 plumes and to support detailed material classification. Tanager-1 launched in 2024 and images for both Planet and the Carbon Mapper coalition, whose tentpole customer is the California Air Resources Board; its data is being certified for use under existing Planet contracts, and a second Tanager satellite is in production.

Planet Insights Platform and analytics

Above the raw imagery, Planet layers machine learning and geospatial analytics: automated ship and vessel detection, land classification, infrastructure and change monitoring, and custom alerting. The strategic shift is from selling pixels to selling decision-ready intelligence, aimed at defense and commercial customers without in-house exploitation teams.

Heritage

2010 - Planet Labs founded by Will Marshall, Robbie Schingler and Chris Boshuizen, all former NASA scientists.

2013 - First Dove satellites deployed from the International Space Station, proving CubeSat-based Earth observation at scale.

2015 - Acquired BlackBridge and its RapidEye constellation, adding imaging capacity and European customers.

2017 - Acquired Terra Bella (formerly Skybox Imaging) and its SkySat constellation from Google, adding high-resolution tasking.

December 2021 - Completed a SPAC merger with dMY Technology Group IV and began trading on the NYSE under the ticker PL, after raising roughly $374 million in private funding.

November 2023 - Pelican-1 technology demonstrator launched, opening the next-generation high-resolution program.

2024 - Tanager-1 hyperspectral satellite launched with the Carbon Mapper coalition; the company also cut about 17% of its workforce in a restructuring aimed at reaching profitability.

March 2024 - Awarded a U.S. Navy contract for maritime surveillance in the Pacific, an early move into defense-focused analytics.

July 2025 - Signed a multi-year contract with the German government worth about €240 million ($280 million), one of the largest European deals for a commercial Earth observation provider, and a seven-figure NATO agreement for daily monitoring and early warning.

October 2025 - Awarded a $12.8 million National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contract for maritime intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region.

2025 - Announced a $230 million contract to build satellites for an unnamed Asia-Pacific customer, its largest manufacturing agreement and a move beyond pure data services.

March 2026 - Reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $307.7 million, up 26%, with $15.5 million adjusted EBITDA — its first full year of non-GAAP profitability — and backlog up 79% to about $900 million. Announced a manufacturing build-out in Berlin to serve European demand.

June 2026 - Record first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $94.2 million, up 42%, with defense and intelligence revenue up more than 65%; full-year guidance raised to $425-441 million.

July 2026 - Pelican-11 launched from Vandenberg, continuing the build-out of the high-resolution constellation.

Roadmap

Planet guided fiscal 2027 revenue to $425-441 million after its first-quarter beat, roughly 41% growth at the midpoint, with adjusted EBITDA around break-even to modestly positive. Growth rests on converting a backlog of about $906 million, of which the German contract begins to be recognized through 2026.

On the hardware side the priority is scaling Pelican toward its planned 32 satellites, with second-generation spacecraft entering service and dedicated capacity reserved for European defense customers, while a second Tanager hyperspectral satellite is in production. Planet is also standing up a manufacturing presence in Berlin to serve European demand, and is delivering a $230 million satellite build for an undisclosed Asia-Pacific customer.

Commercially, the company continues to shift from image sales toward the Planet Insights Platform and AI-derived analytics — maritime domain awareness, change detection and automated feature extraction — with recurring government contracts in the U.S. and Europe as the strategic core.

22 articles on Planet Labs published by NovΔ mAInd.