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SkySat is a constellation of sub-meter resolution
Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...
s owned by
Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American public 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 co ...
, providing imagery, high-definition video and analytics services. Planet acquired the satellites with their purchase of Terra Bella (formerly Skybox Imaging), a
Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...
-based company founded in 2009 by Dan Berkenstock, Julian Mann, John Fenwick, and Ching-Yu Hu, from Google in 2017.


Overview

The resolution of the SkySat satellite imagery and videos is high enough to observe objects that impact the global economy such as terrain, cars and shipping containers. The satellites can capture video clips lasting up to 90 seconds at 30 frames per second. The high-definition satellite video from SkySat satellites "could help us understand our world better by analyzing movement of goods and people, providing visual data about supply chains, shipping, industrial plant activity, and even humanitarian relief efforts". The constellation's goal is to be able to provide high-resolution satellite imagery of any place on Earth multiple times a day. When Skybox originally developed the satellites, they planned to "change the nature" of the satellite industry by building satellites with "off-the-shelf" electronics that cost under .


History

By April 2012, Skybox Imaging had raised a total of (equivalent to about $M in ) of
private capital In economics, capital goods or capital are "those durable produced goods that are in turn used as productive inputs for further production" of goods and services. At the macroeconomic level, "the nation's capital stock includes buildings, eq ...
from
Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successfu ...
, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and
Norwest Venture Partners Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity investment firm. The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, ...
to develop the SkySat constellation. On 21 November 2013, the first satellite, SkySat-1, was launched on a
Dnepr rocket The Dnepr rocket (russian: Днепр, translit=Dnepr; uk, Дніпро, translit=Dnipró) was a space launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River. It was a converted ICBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit, operated by launch ...
from Dombarovsky Air Base, Russia. Less than a month later, on 11 December 2013, the first images captured by the SkySat-1 satellite, of
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
,
Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...
, and the coast of
Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
, were released. The second satellite, SkySat-2, launched on a
Soyuz-2 Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...
/Fregat rocket from
Baikonur Baikonur ( kk, Байқоңыр, ; russian: Байконур, translit=Baykonur), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
on 8 July 2014. The company plans to eventually launch a fleet of 24 satellites. and released its first images within 48 hours of launch. On 10 February 2014, SSL announced that Skybox had awarded it a contract to build 13 more satellites based on a revised "SkySat C" design. The first of these, Skysat-3, also referred to as SkySat-C1, was launched on 22 June 2016 by
Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
(ISRO) on
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...
PSLV-C34 PSLV-C34 was the 36th mission of the PSLV, PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) program and 14th mission of PSLV in PSLV-XL, XL configuration. The PSLV-C34 successfully carried and deployed 20 satellites in the Sun-synchronous orbit. With a laun ...
. On 10 June 2014, Skybox Imaging announced that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired by
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
for (equivalent to about $M in ). The acquisition was completed on 1 August 2014. Skybox Imaging changed its name to "Terra Bella" on 8 March 2016, to indicate its focus on image analytics. The new name was partially based on the Terra Bella Avenue in
Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...
, where the company's headquarters are located. Terra bella is Italian for "beautiful Earth". The name change was also partially due to perceived trademark infringement that came to light in the Google acquisition. Four more SkySat units were launched on 16 September 2016, by the
Vega rocket Vega ( it, Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata, or french: Vecteur européen de génération avancée, or en, European Vector of Advanced Generation, meaning "Advanced generation European carrier rocket") is an expendable launch system in ...
's seventh flight from
Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...
. In 2017, Google sold Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to
Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American public 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 co ...
, adding to their existing fleet of around 50 satellites, for an undisclosed price and entered into a multi-year agreement to purchase SkySat imaging data. Planet Labs launched six more SkySat satellites, along with four
Dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
s, on a
Minotaur-C Minotaur-C (''Minotaur Commercial''), formerly known as Taurus or Taurus XL, is a four stage solid fueled launch vehicle built in the United States by Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) and launched from SLC-576E at California's Vandenber ...
rocket from
Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...
on 31 October 2017. An additional two SkySat satellites and three Dove CubeSats were launched on a
Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...
rocket from Vandenberg on 3 December 2018.


Satellite constellation

The SkySat satellites are based on the
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
concept, using inexpensive automotive grade electronics and fast commercially available processors, but scaled up to approximately the size of a minifridge. The satellites are approximately long, compared to approximately for a 3U CubeSat, and weigh . The first two prototype satellites (SkySat-1 and 2) were produced by Skybox Imaging in-house. They did not have a propulsion system. The other 13 satellites are manufactured by SSL, the optical payloads are built by
L3 Technologies L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products, ...
, and the satellite thrusters are provided by
ECAPS History ECAPS AB is a Swedish spacecraft propulsion company, established in 2000 as a joint venture between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and Volvo Aero with the goal of developing and commercializing in-space thruster technology using a lo ...
. The 13 SkySat-C satellites are slightly larger and heavier (with mass about 120 kg or 264 lbs) than the prototypes. They have a planned operational life of 6 years. The SkySat-C satellites were put on a
sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...
. Three of Planet's commercial SkySat (SkySat-16, -17 and -18) Earth-imaging spacecraft launched on top of a stack of 58 SpaceX Starlink-8 satellites on 13 June 2020 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, and three more (SkySat-19, -20 and -21) hitched a ride on another SpaceX mission on August 18, 2020. Built by
Maxar Technologies Maxar Technologies Inc. is a space technology company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specializing in manufacturing communication, Earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and relate ...
, each of the SkySat satellites weighs around at launch. The SkySats are about the size of a mini-refrigerator, and their optical instruments produce images of Earth with a resolution of 50 cm, according to Planet.https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/13/starlink-satellite-deployments-continue-with-successful-falcon-9-launch/ - 15 June 2010


List of satellites

There have been 21 satellites launched.


References


External links


Official website
{{portalbar, Spaceflight 2009 establishments in California analytics companies companies based in Mountain View, California Earth imaging satellites Google private spaceflight satellite constellations satellite video secondary payloads