We see the whole world, every day. Using space to help life on Earth. 🛰️ $PL
Earth's Orbit
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Kelp forests provide habitat for marine life, protect coastlines, and offer vital clues about ocean health. Yet they remain remarkably difficult to measure and manage. Along British Columbia’s coast, @HakaiInstitute's Kelp Explorer is changing that.
Drawing on PlanetScope imagery and shaped by collaboration with First Nations stewards, researchers, and coastal planners, the tool is helping communities better understand these shifting underwater forests, identify opportunities for restoration, and strengthen long-term conservation efforts.
Read more on our blog: planet.com/pulse/tracking-th…
Part 2 📹 with our Co-Founder & CEO @Will4Planet on @sourceryy!
From the lab to our Planet AI app, watch the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=NjebKeJ8…
BREAKING: Inside Planet Labs (NYSE: $PL )
If you had access to every image of the entire Earth over the history of time, what questions would you ask? What would you explore?
FACTORY TOUR
I got a 1st look inside @planet Labs' new manufacturing floor w/ Co-Founder & CEO Will Marshall (@Will4Planet)
This is our Part II of Planet series, Part I: Sit-Down Interview below.
Planet has built 700+ satellites, second only to SpaceX, their constellation captures 4 MILLION images daily, powering intelligence across defense, agriculture, infrastructure & more.
We toured the manufacturing floor, where satellites can be built in just 8 hours at ~1,000X lower cost than traditional spacecraft, explored next-generation satellites, and saw how they survive 200G launch shocks.
We also discussed SpaceX's collision avoidance efforts and tested Planet's new AI platform to investigate 5 years of changes at Area 51.
Inside the factory:
• Area 51: We used Planet's new AI platform to investigate 5 years of changes at the secretive military base
• 8-hour production: Planet can manufacture up to 40 Dove satellites per week
• 1,000X cost reduction: How consumer electronics transformed satellite manufacturing economics
• Next-generation satellites: Inside the clean room with Pelican-10 and a look at Owl, targeting 1-meter daily imagery
• SpaceX & collision avoidance: Starlink's push to open-source space traffic data and the challenge of tracking ~100M pieces of orbital debris
• 10X more data, 10X faster: The next generation of Planet's Earth imaging network
• 200G shock testing: How satellites survive rocket launches, extreme vibrations & temperature changes
• Software-like margins: Why Planet's vertically integrated hardware infrastructure creates a high barrier to entry for its data business
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Will Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO at Planet Labs
(00:48) 700 satellites for less than one NASA mission
(02:44) Why Planet Labs is really a data business
(03:45) How a satellite sees trees from 500 km away
(06:22) 4 million images of Earth, every day
(07:44) What a satellite goes through to reach orbit
(09:03) The $500 phone vs. the $1B satellite
(12:05) 1,000x more data than the first satellites
(14:47) Planet Labs' 48 ground stations that bring Earth’s data home
(16:44) Why every Planet Labs satellite is named after a bird
(18:19) A look inside Planet Labs’ sharpest satellite
(20:17) Why Planet Labs doesn’t make its own chips
(21:14) Building a satellite in 8 hours, not 8 years
(22:47) Why fleet size isn't what matters
(24:30) The engine that’s 10x more efficient in space
(25:29) Why the 100 million pieces of space junk is the real collision risk
(26:56) Spotting gas leaks from space
(27:40) Testing satellites to the breaking point
(32:19) What changed at Area 51 in five years?
(37:31) The room where satellite radios are tested
We’ve signed a multi-launch agreement with @stoke_space! 🚀
Stoke has prepared Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 14 for its fully reusable Nova rocket, which will host future Planet missions.
It’s part of how we keep a diversified, persistent path to orbit as our constellations grow.
👉 Full announcement: investors.planet.com/news/ne…
On the eve of Día de los Muertos, Mexico City’s Zócalo fills with cempasúchil, the marigolds whose color and scent are said to guide souls home. Formally called the Plaza de la Constitución, this main square was once the center of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. From above, gold flower arrangements are visible fanning out from the central flagpole and public altar, framed by the cathedral to the north and the National Palace to the east. 🌼
When access to satellite data is fragmented across government agencies, monitoring changes on the ground becomes a challenge.
@igacColombia is working with Planet and @procalculo to change that. By centralizing access to near-daily satellite imagery and geospatial analytics, IGAC is equipping more than 3,000 users across 95 government agencies with the tools to monitor land use, track development, and detect environmental threats.
Read more on our blog: planet.com/pulse/building-re…
Our CEO and Co-Founder @Will4Planet on @sourceryy with @MollySOShea!
Orbital data centers, the future of compute in space, what we're seeing every day from our satellites, and our Planet AI app, which just went into GA today.
Full episode below.
NEW: The case for AI data centers in space, Earth intelligence, & why orbital compute could soon be cheaper than on Earth
Interview w/ Planet Labs (NYSE: $PL) Co-Founder & CEO Will Marshall (@Will4Planet)
"Data centers is all an energy problem."
"In space, for each solar panel, you get 5X more power."
@planet has built 718 satellites, 2nd only to SpaceX, & operates the only constellation capable of imaging Earth's entire landmass daily, generating 4M images per day.
Now, Planet is working with Google on Project Suncatcher, testing AI compute in orbit, alongside NVIDIA-powered processing aboard its Pelican satellites.
Will explains the economics:
"No interruption from clouds, no interruption from day & night. So you don't have to have batteries, you don't have to have gas, you don't have any of those other power systems."
He estimates that once launch costs hit $200 to $300/kg, roughly 3X to 4X below SpaceX's current price, orbital data centers could be cheaper than ones on Earth.
"This is going to suddenly massively increase the size of the space sector."
Beyond compute, we discuss how Planet is turning its massive archive of Earth data into AI-powered intelligence, alongside its growing defense business supporting Ukraine, the US Navy, and sovereign satellite programs across Europe & Asia, including Sweden's first reconnaissance satellite, launched just four months after signing.
With growing resistance to terrestrial data center construction, many are watching if next major AI infrastructure buildout going to happen in orbit..
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Will Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO at Planet Labs
(00:49) “We go where the cool people are”
(01:46) What it takes to image Earth every day
(04:13) Why information is power in modern war
(07:39) Why countries want their own satellites
(08:34) How Wall Street & Big Tech are watching from space
(10:22) The new face of warfare
(11:16) The most surprising uses of satellite imagery
(14:49) Imaging any point on Earth within 30 minutes
(17:24) What if you could ask a satellite a question?
(19:41) Every AI story comes back to compute
(20:38) Do data centers in space make sense?
(25:32) Why satellites are so sensitive
(26:55) The NASA maverick who made Planet Labs possible
(28:37) Who's on Planet Labs no-go list
(29:18) Will's prediction on finding aliens
(33:34) Inside NASA's alien hotline
(35:05) How a childhood hero inspired Will’s space career
(38:21) Why persistence matters most
💬 Search the planet. Investigate change over time. Access anywhere. The Planet AI app is now generally available.
The app lets users search over a decade of Planet imagery all in a simple, map-based chat interface. Locally and globally. Through space and through time.
🌎 Learn more here: planet.com/pulse/introducing…
You can now ask the planet anything: The Planet AI app is generally available! 💬🌎 Today's AI models have read the internet, but they haven't seen the world.
The @planet AI app changes that. You can now ask questions directly to a 10+ year, 3,000+ layer archive of daily satellite imagery.
During beta, we've seen:
🌾 Farmers boosting crop yields
🚒 First responders tracking disaster paths
🛡️ Security teams uncovering emerging risks
🌲 Park rangers halting illegal deforestation in real time
We're putting satellite intelligence into more hands, helping more people see what's happening on Earth and make better decisions. Search. Explore. Act.
What questions do you have? Try it now: ai.planet.com/?utm_campaign=…
There's a new version of this post
Planet retweeted
Testing @Planet's amazing new AI app.
I asked it for all the gravel airstrips in Canada’s north, for a project I'm working on. It found them in seconds.
A constantly updated image database of the entire Earth. Super useful: ai.planet.com @Will4Planet
Congrats to Brian Lewis and Kiruthika Devaraj on their new technical leadership roles! 🎉
Dr. Kiruthika Devaraj is our new Chief Technologist, and Brian Lewis is our new Chief Engineer. These two roles will be central both to advancing our core technology roadmap and to defining the next generation of remote sensing capabilities.
👉 More from our Chief Space Officer James Mason: planet.com/pulse/planet-appo…
We have first light from Pelican-12! 📸 🛰️
Our first 30 cm class capable satellite captured this high-resolution image of Angola’s capital city, Luanda, on October 30, 2026. The spacecraft will initially deliver 50 cm class imagery, and is designed to capture 30 cm class imagery after being lowered to its operational altitude.
Last month was exciting, two launches, two coasts, and one streamlined process: build ➡️ launch ➡️ imagery! investors.planet.com/news/ne…
Exciting day for our friends at @Google as we receive the first response back from our Suncatcher protoype sat! We’re proud to partner on this moonshot of bringing TPUs to orbit, and excited for what’s next 🛰️
Our TPUs just phoned home... from space.
ICYMI, on October 1, we sent four TPUs into orbit to test whether our AI hardware could operate in space. The initial goal was to see if our chips could turn on, process a prompt, and transmit a response back to Earth.
This week, we got our answer. ✨
This milestone brings us one step closer to understanding if space-based compute is possible. We’re sending two more TPU-equipped satellites to orbit in 2027 for our next milestone.
Watch this space 👀 and learn more about the first milestone of our long-term moonshot with Project Suncatcher ↓
Planet retweeted
@Google's TPUs are working great in orbit! To confirm everything was working in space, it wrote a haiku -- a little different than our typical first lights. :) 🧠🛰️
Lots more testing to do, but this is a major milestone! Congrats to the @planet and @Google Suncatcher team!
The coastline of Namibia’s Namib Desert is the site of hundreds of shipwrecks, caused by the thick fog and treacherous rocks of the so-called “Skeleton Coast.”🦴
Our satellites captured the wreckage of three shipwrecks situated along the region’s dramatic shoreline. Pictured first is the Frotamerica, a Brazilian bulk carrier that broke free of its tow on the way to the scrapyard and drifted ashore in 2013. Next is the Otavi, which was shipwrecked in Spencer Bay in 1945. The oldest of these wrecks, shown last, is the Eduard Bohlen, which wrecked in 1909. As the desert pushed towards the coast, this ship became stranded over 1,000 feet from the shore.
(1) SkySat • Wreck of the Frotamerica, Karas Region, Namibia • October 22, 2026
(2) SkySat • Wreck of the Otavi, Spencer Bay, Namibia • October 22, 2026
(3) SkySat • Wreck of the Eduard Bohlen, Hardap Region, Namibia • May 2, 2022
Into the great… known. 🌎🛰️
With near-daily global scan and more than a decade of imagery, we’re helping our customers spot what’s happening, recognize patterns, and close the gap between seeing a problem and doing something about it.
If your daily commute in D.C. takes you through the Pentagon Metro station, you’ve probably seen Planet in action. Can’t make it by? Here are a few highlights.👇 planet.com
Periodic or lower-resolution observations can miss the rapid, field-level shifts typical of multi-season agriculture.
Using five years of daily PlanetScope imagery, researchers in Arizona worked with our scientists to classify ten different crop types with 92.7% accuracy, offering new precision for irrigation planning and water management.
Read our latest blog for more: planet.com/pulse/seeing-crop…
Hot air balloons seen from space! 🎈
Earlier this month, we captured this unique view of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, showing numerous brightly-colored balloons. This nine-day event is the world’s largest balloon festival, featuring hundreds of hot air balloons of all shapes and sizes.
How often you report, and how often you observe—are separate questions. A quarterly forecast built on a few cloud-limited scenes can't tell you if what you're seeing is typical, unusual, just starting, or nearly finished. High-frequency PlanetScope imagery closes those gaps. Learn why dense time series deliver more trustworthy insight: planet.com/pulse/why-dense-s…