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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. 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. 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 2014 and deployed via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in mid-February. The company planned to launch a total of 131 satellites by mid-2015.
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.
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In July 2018, Planet laid off somewhat less than ten percent of its workforce. 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.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Planet Labs, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7