INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Satellite imaging and analytics company Planet is taking the wraps off its new manufacturing space in San Francisco
Founded by ex-NASA employees, Planet is leveraging some of the $183 million in funding it amassed to expand
In the basement of a nondescript office building in the middle of Harrison Street in San Francisco, Planet is hard at work building
low-orbit satellites that take images of our changing planet, and now the aerospace imaging company has more room to do so, claiming that
the new facility is the most prolific satellite manufacturing spot in the world.
Inside thenew 27,000-square-foot manufacturingsite are
satellite-building stations where Planet engineers piece together &doves,& as the machines are called.The new site is six times the size of
their old factory, and with that new space Planet claims its engineers will produce up to 40 satellites/week
Fluorescent panels illuminate the industrial work stations, and the small satellites sit plugged into their &dove nests.
Planet says their
satellites can be built using only 10 tools
The way Planet builds satellites is different from how NASA or Lockheed Martin does
Planet operates off the idea that instead of building large, cumbersome machines that sit in space taking images with outdated technology
and old sensors, many smaller satellites with a one to three-year lifespan can get the job done faster and provide better images of the
With the new site, Planet will bring all aspects of spacecraft production — from RD to manufacturing to testing — under one
roof.
California is ‘launching our own damn satellite& to track pollution, with help from Planet
So what exactly do these satellites do
Each satellite can take two images per second, and Planet systems then work toclassify images as water, coral, rivers, roads, infrastructure
and forests.
Doves in the dove nest
Planet philosophy is that &you can''t fix what you can''t see.& Partners in the defense, humanities and
agriculture sectors are using data from Planet satellite fleet for projects like classifying deforestation in Brazil and detecting urban
The satellites derive images from lesser traveled parts of the planet
The imaging systems have gathered data on the destruction of roads in Syria, and even recently detected the sudden appearance of a chemical
One partner is using Planet data to measure coral reef destruction in Australia.
In the past, Planet has worked with launch partners like
However, this first fleet of satellites manufactured in the new facility will be shipped out to India for launch on the PSLV rocket next
month.In four years, Planet has launched 298 satellites, 150 of which are currently in orbitcollecting over 300 million square kilometers of
imagery daily.
Planet Labs Nabs $95 Million And A New COO To Cover The Earth With Flocks Of Tiny Satellites
