Planet Launches Suncatcher, Tanager-2, and 18 SuperDove Satellites

Planet Labs PBC announced the successful launch of 20 satellites: the first demo mission for Google's Project Suncatcher; Tanager-2, its latest hyperspectral satellite; and 18 SuperDoves. The spacecraft were launched to orbit aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Planet has successfully made initial contact with Tanager-2, the Project Suncatcher prototype, and two SuperDoves and begun the commissioning process. Planet expects to make contact with the remaining 16 SuperDoves that will deploy on the D-Orbit ION orbital transfer vehicle on schedule. This marks Planet’s 40th successful launch and a total of 718 satellites built and delivered on orbit.

Developed in partnership with Google, the Project Suncatcher satellite will run the first-ever test of Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in space. The moonshot project is exploring the feasibility of running machine learning (ML) compute systems in-orbit.

Developed in partnership with Carbon Mapper, Tanager-2 features best-in-class hyperspectral VSWIR (Visible, Near-infrared and Short-wave infrared) imaging capabilities. With a cutting-edge, adjustable sensitivity imaging spectroscopy payload onboard, Tanager is designed to capture imagery in 426 contiguous bands with ~5 nm spectral resolution at 30 m spatial resolution. This configuration makes Tanager an ideal sensor for detecting methane emissions and a myriad of hyperspectral applications such as rare-earth element (REE) identification, water quality analysis, and agricultural intelligence. Planet continues to work with Carbon Mapper to scale the fleet, with plans to build and deploy at least three additional Tanager satellites following Tanager-2.

The 18 SuperDoves of Flock 4J will supplement PlanetScope, Planet’s flagship near-daily, global monitoring mission, which provides consistent global coverage across millions of square kilometers for customers in commercial enterprise, civil government, and defense and intelligence sectors.