Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) announced the successful launch of 20 satellites aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The payload included Tanager-2, Planet's latest hyperspectral satellite; the first demo mission for Google's Project Suncatcher; and 18 SuperDove satellites. The launch marks Planet's 40th successful launch and brings the total number of satellites the company has built and delivered to orbit to 718.
Tanager-2, developed in partnership with Carbon Mapper, carries a hyperspectral VSWIR (Visible, Near-infrared and Short-wave infrared) imaging payload capable of capturing imagery in 426 contiguous bands with about 5 nm spectral resolution at 30 m spatial resolution. Planet said the sensor is suited to detecting methane emissions as well as applications including rare-earth element identification, water quality analysis and agricultural intelligence. The company plans to build and deploy at least three additional Tanager satellites following Tanager-2, continuing its work with Carbon Mapper to scale the fleet.
The same launch carried the first demonstration satellite for Google's Project Suncatcher, developed in partnership with Google, which will run what the companies describe as the first-ever test of Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in space as part of a broader exploration of whether machine learning compute systems could run in orbit.
Planet said it has made initial contact with Tanager-2, the Suncatcher prototype, and two of the SuperDoves, and has begun commissioning. The company expects to make contact with the remaining 16 SuperDoves, which are deploying from a D-Orbit ION orbital transfer vehicle, on schedule. The 18 SuperDoves, part of what Planet calls Flock 4J, will supplement PlanetScope, the company's near-daily global monitoring constellation used by commercial, civil government, and defense and intelligence customers.