Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.), known as "Planet.", is a publicly traded American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends.
The company designs and manufactures 3U-CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are then delivered into orbit as secondary payloads on other rocket launch missions. Each Dove is equipped with a high-powered telescope and camera programmed to capture different swaths of the Earth. Each Dove Earth observation satellite continuously scans Earth, sending data once it passes over a ground station, by means of a frame image sensor.PLANET IMAGERY PRODUCT SPECIFICATION: PLANETSCOPE & RAPIDEYE
The images gathered by Doves, which can be accessed online and some of which are available under an open data access policy, 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 launched into orbit. In 2017, Planet launched an additional 88 Dove satellites, and Google sold its subsidiary Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs. By September 2018, the company had launched nearly 300 satellites, 150 of which are active. In 2020, Planet Labs launched six additional high-resolution SkySats, SkySats 16–21, and 35 Dove satellites.
Through a deal funded by Norway's Climate and Forests Initiative (NICFI), Planet and its partners Airbus and KSAT provided access to high-resolution basemaps of 64 tropical countries to help combat deforestation until April 2025. It also provides data to FAO's Framework for Ecosystem Monitoring (Ferm).
Following a January 2021 launch of 48 Planet SuperDoves, the company operated a global constellation of over 200 active satellites.
In July 2021 Planet Labs announced that they plan to become a public company and list on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with the SPAC DMY Technology Group Inc IV. The deal would value Planet at US$2.8B. The business combination was completed on December 7, 2021. Planet registered as a public benefit corporation and formally changed its name to Planet Labs PBC. The stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 8, 2021. After the merger, Planet had more than $500 million in capital and about 190 satellites in orbit. The company expected it to take the next few years until they get to cashflow breakeven, funding their operations with $200 million from the aforementioned $500 million (the rest $300 million forming a "strategic warchest"). At the time of the merger, the company had over 600 customers (most customers, 90%, are annual subscriptions to Planet's data service) and it generated $113 million in revenue in 2020. At the time of the merger, Planet aimed to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis by early 2025, and to grow its annual revenue to nearly $700 million by early 2026.
Planet Labs has contracts to supply imagery to various agencies of the US government, including the FAS, NOAA, Oak Ridge, Sandia, the Bureau of Reclamation, and NASA.
History
Planet Labs was founded in 2010 as Cosmogia by former NASA scientists Chris Boshuizen, Will Marshall, and Robbie Schingler, who teamed up with John Kuolt in 2011 during his studies at Oxford University with a thesis to leverage the processing power of mobile phones to power the avionics of a nano-satellite. Mr. Kuolt's EP (Entrepreneurial Project) at Oxford University became the original business plan for Planet.Brewster, Signe. "With plans to launch 28 satellites next year, at Planet Labs, the space industry is back", gigaom.com, 2 August 2013. Retrieved on 18 September 2013.Graham, William. "Russian Dnepr conducts record breaking 32 satellite haul", nasaspaceflight.com, 21 November 2013. Retrieved on 26 November 2013.Solon, Olivia. "In pictures: Planet Labs' nanosatellites" , Wired, 13 August 2013. Retrieved on 26 November 2013. The initial goal of the company was to make use of information gathered from space to help with life on Earth. The group of scientists considered the problem with most satellites to be their large and clunky form, prompting them to build inexpensive and compact satellites to be manufactured in bulk, called CubeSats. The small group began building Planet's first satellite in a California garage.
Planet Labs launched two demonstration CubeSats, Dove 1 and Dove 2, in April 2013.Wall, Mike. "Planet Labs Unveils Tiny Earth-Observation Satellite Family", space.com, 31 August 2013. Retrieved on 18 September 2013. Both Dove 1 (aboard Antares 110 rocket) and Dove 2 (aboard a Soyuz Rocket) were placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit. 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 2014Wall, Mike. "Record-Breaking 33 'Cubesats' to Launch from Space Station This Month", space.com, 4 February 2014. Retrieved on 6 February 2014. and deployed via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in mid-February.Klotz, Irene. "Satellite 'Flock' Launched From ISS Cubesat Cannon: Photos", discovery.com, 18 February 2014, Retrieved on 25 April 2014. The company planned to launch a total of 131 satellites by mid-2015.Taylor, Richard. "Mini-satellites send high-definition views of Earth", BBC, 15 May 2014. Retrieved on 16 May 2014.
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.
On April 18, 2017, Google completed the sale of Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs. As part of the sale, Google acquired an equity stake in Planet and entered into a multi-year agreement to purchase SkySat imaging data.
On January 21, 2018, a Dove Pioneer CubeSat was part of the payload of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, the first orbital-entry craft launched from a privately owned and operated spaceport at Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.
In July 2018, Planet laid off somewhat less than ten percent of its workforce.Earth observation startup Planet trims workforce by “less than ten percent”, SpaceNews, 18 July 2018, accessed 21 July 2018. In September 2018, the company had launched a total of 298 satellites, 150 of which were still active.
On December 18, 2018, Planet announced they were in the process of acquiring the St Louis company, Boundless Spatial, Inc., a geospatial data software company.
Several weeks after their acquisition of Boundless, Planet's attorneys asserted that executives from Boundless had failed to disclose “information concerning material customer contracts,” and the acquisition was thereafter renegotiated down by more than half, from $40M to $16M. According to Quartz, the executives of Boundless had failed to disclose details concerning work, or details concerning future work, with the NGA.
On 3 July 2020, it was mentioned in the news that the company had "more than 120" active satellites at the time "providing daily imaging coverage over all of the world's landmass".
In August 2020, Planet completed its SkySat Constellation of 21 satellites by launching the final three SkySats on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
In May 2022, SES Government Solutions (now SES Space & Defense), a wholly owned subsidiary of communications satellite owner and operator, SES, in partnership with Planet Labs, was awarded a US$28.96 million contract from NASA's Communications Services Project for real-time, always-on low-latency connectivity services to NASA spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications, using SES's geostationary orbiting C-band satellites and medium Earth orbiting Ka-band satellites, including the O3b mPOWER constellation.NASA, Industry to Collaborate on Space Communications by 2025 NASA. 20 April 2022. Accessed 29 May 2022SES wins NASA contract Advanced Television. 10 May 2022. Accessed 29 May 2022
In August 2023, Planet cited "restructuring" as the reason for laying off 10% of its employees, about 120 individuals. CEO William Marshall released a statement saying, "I want to be clear that I am responsible for the decisions that led us here. I know this has significant effects on the lives of our team and their families, and for that I am sorry."
In March 2024, Planet Labs Federal, a subsidiary of Planet Labs, was awarded a contract by NIWC-PAC to incorporate Planet's SkySat and PlanetScope data into SeaVision.
In June 2024, Planet Labs announced a reduction of nearly 17% of its global workforce, equating to approximately 180 jobs. The company stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the layoffs were necessary to align resources with market opportunities, improve operational efficiency, and support long-term growth and profitability. The decision is expected to incur a one-off cost of around $9.5 million to $10.5 million.
In August 2024, Planet launched its first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1, along with 36 SuperDove satellites on the SpaceX Transporter-11 mission. Tanager-1 was developed as part of the Carbon Mapper Coalition to detect and quantify methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The company released the first light images from Tanager-1 in September 2024.
In January 2025, the company launched its second high-resolution Pelican satellite, Pelican-2, on SpaceX's Transporter-12 mission. That same month, Planet signed a multi-year $230 million agreement with SKY Perfect JSAT to build and operate a dedicated constellation of ten Pelican satellites for the Japanese satellite operator.
In July 2025, Planet announced a €240 million contract funded by the German government to provide dedicated satellite capacity and data services for European security and peace-keeping efforts.
In August 2025, the company launched two additional high-resolution satellites, Pelican-3 and Pelican-4.
In September 2025, Planet announced plans to open a new satellite manufacturing facility in Berlin. The facility is intended to double the production capacity of the Pelican satellite fleet and serves as an expansion of the company's European headquarters.
In March 2026, at the request of the US government, Planet imposed restrictions on its imagery during the 2026 Iran War. Initially, images from the Middle East were subject to a 14 day delay. This was later expanded into a complete ban on the release of new imagery of the region. In April 2026, The Washington Post reported that Chinese state media noted MizarVision's use of Planet Labs imaging in its analysis. A representative for Planet Labs stated that MizarVision, a Chinese geospatial analysis company, was not a client and denied the company's ownership of the images in question.
Flock satellite constellations
Planet's PlanetScope Dove satellite constellation is designed to observe Earth. By using several small satellites, CubeSats, the constellation produces high resolution images of Earth — per pixel. The flock collects images from latitudes that are within 52 degrees of Earth's equator. A large portion of the world's agricultural regions and population lie within the area imaged by the flock. Initially, the mission used the ISS (International Space Station) and different track launch vehicles to get in orbit.
Dove