Pelican-2 & 36 SuperDoves Arrived in Vandenberg, California For Launch
Pelican-2 Is Equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson Platform and NASA CSP Satellite-to-Satellite Communications to Speed Data Delivery for Customers
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL), a leading provider of daily Earth data and insights, today announced that its latest high-resolution satellite Pelican-2 and 36 SuperDoves have arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 9, in preparation for liftoff in early 2025 on board the Transporter-12 Rideshare mission with SpaceX. Pelican-2 joins Pelican-1 (a smallsat platform tech demonstration launched last year) as part of Planet's next-generation, high-resolution fleet, to support and expand its existing SkySat capabilities.
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Pelican-2 photographed ahead of departure at Planet Labs manufacturing lab in San Francisco, California. (Photo: Business Wire)
This Pelican satellite is designed to provide up to 40 cm class resolution imagery across 6 multispectral bands optimized for cross-sensor analysis. Additionally, Planet has collaborated with NVIDIA to equip Pelican-2 with the NVIDIA Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics to power on-orbit computing—with the aim of vastly reducing the time between data capture and its availability for customers. Pelican-2 is designed to rapidly convert precise spatial data into near-real-time insights by utilizing AI-powered solutions for use cases including object detection, vegetation and crop type classification, and disaster response.
"It's exciting to see Pelican 2 on its way to launch. With NVIDIA's latest GPU onboard, we plan to combine cutting-edge AI with sat-to-sat comms – aiming to speed customer delivery time from hours to minutes. This is critical for applications from security to disaster response where minutes can make the difference," said Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet. "We're proud of our key partnerships with NVIDIA and NASA that have helped enable these advanced technologies onboard and have imbued Pelican-2 with this state-of-the-art capability."
Pelican-2 is also equipped with C-band and Ka-band radios, designed to conduct Planet's first on-orbit tests of satellite-to-satellite communications links, building on the ground demonstrations of technology completed last year as part of Planet's work for the NASA Communications Services Project (NASA CSP). Planet is subcontracted to both SES Space & Defense and Telesat Government Solutions for the NASA CSP program, one of Planet's many public-private partnerships that are critical in furthering the Earth Observation industry's growth and adoption across a wide range of industries and applications.
In addition to complementing Planet's existing SkySat capabilities, the new Pelican fleet represents a new milestone as the company continues to pioneer agile aerospace. Planet's proprietary, leading smallsat platform powers the largest fleet of EO satellites, now with three different constellations of satellites to supply three distinct but complementary datasets to its customers. The 36 SuperDove satellites—PlanetScope Flock 4G—will join Pelican-2 on the launch in order to replenish Planet's on-orbit medium resolution fleet. Today, Planet's SuperDoves capture daily, 8-band data of Earth's changing systems, allowing commercial users, researchers, and governments to gain unparalleled insight at regional and global scales.
About Planet Labs PBC
Planet is a leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions. Planet is driven by a mission to image the world every day, and make change visible, accessible and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest Earth observation fleet of imaging satellites. Planet provides mission-critical data, advanced insights, and software solutions to over 1,000 customers, comprising the world's leading agriculture, forestry, intelligence, education and finance companies and government agencies, enabling users to simply and effectively derive unique value from satellite imagery. Planet is a public benefit corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange as PL. To learn more visit www.planet.com and follow us on X (formerly Twitter).
Forward Looking Statements
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, the Company's ability to capture market opportunity and realize any of the potential benefits from current or future product enhancements, new products, or strategic partnerships and customer collaborations, the Company's ability to successfully design, build, launch and deploy, operate and market new products and satellites and the Company's ability to realize any of the potential benefits from product and satellite launches, either as designed, within the expected time frame, in a cost-effective manner, or at all. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to them. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future events and results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. Factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to the Company's ability to obtain and maintain required licenses and approvals from regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a timely fashion, or at all; whether the Company will be able to successfully build, launch and deploy or operate its satellites, including new satellites either as designed, in a timely fashion or at all; the Company's ability to develop and release product and service enhancements to respond to rapid technological change, or to develop new designs and technologies for its satellites, in a timely and cost-effective manner; whether the Company will be able to continue to invest in scaling its sales organization, expanding its software engineering (including its ability to integrate new satellite capabilities) and marketing capabilities; whether the Company will be able to accurately predict and capture market opportunity; whether current customers or prospective customers adopt the Company's platform or new products; the Company's ability realize any of the potential benefits from new products and satellites, as well as strategic partnerships and customer collaborations; and other risk factors and disclosures about the Company and its business included in the Company's periodic reports, proxy statements, and other disclosure materials filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which are available online at www.sec.gov, and on the Company's website at www.planet.com. All forward-looking statements reflect the Company's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
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