EO
Stories about the Earth Observation industry’s eyes on our planet.
NUVIEW Emerges from Stealth with 3D Mapping Ambitions
NUVIEW is looking to see the world in a whole new dimension. The Orlando, FL-based startup emerged from stealth this morning with an ambition to map the globe in 3D each year and $1.2B in prospective customer contracts under its belt. The world in 3D: While there’s no shortage of companies supplying optical, hyperspectral, or…
Planet Reports Record Q4 and FY2023 Earnings
Planet ($PL) saw $191.3M in full year revenue, a 46% jump from last year, the company revealed Wednesday. This comes in at the top end of its previous projection of $188M to $192M. Planet’s Q4, by the numbers: The company expects revenue to grow 35% this year, in the range of $248M to $268M. An…
Satellogic Launches “Space Systems”
Satellogic is launching a new Space Systems product, the publicly traded satellite operator ($SATL) announced last week. With Space Systems, Satellogic says countries or companies can buy and fly their own EO satellite “with submeter resolution, proven performance, and custom mission options.” In other words, the product represents a space-as-a-service offering for those who have…
BlackSky Reports Q4 Results
BlackSky ($BKSY) is paring losses; winning key contracts; and sees a near-term path to (adjusted) profitability. Those were the key takeaways bright and early at 7:30am on Tuesday, when the Herndon, VA satellite operator reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results. For the full year, BlackSky pulled in $65.4M in revenue, up 92% over…
Umbra, Maxar Announce SAR-Optical Alliance
Yesterday, Umbra dropped a triple whammy. The Santa Barbara, CA-based startup 1) rebranded, 2) published licensing and pricing details for its SAR imagery, along with sharing some of that imagery for the first time, and 3) announced a key partnership with Maxar. We’ll take this whammy by whammy. #1: The rebrand Umbra’s logo, website, and…
Maxar Wins National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Contract
This morning, Maxar ($MAXR) announced that it has won a contract worth $192M over five years to supply American allies with high-res optical, SAR and 3D imagery. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) award falls under the Foreign Commercial Imagery Program. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will see the US and its allies tap data…
Orbital Sidekick Raises $10M, Preps for Launch of Hyperspectral Constellation
This week, Orbital Sidekick announced a $10M raise from a group of strategic and existing investors. Energy Innovation Capital led the round, with energy firms Williams and ONEOK participating. The University of Minnesota’s endowment fund, 11.2 Capital, Syndicate 708, and In-Q-Tel also joined the round. Six-year-old, SF-based Orbital Sidekick is preparing to launch a six-bird…
IBM and NASA Partner on Earth Science AI Research
IBM’s AI foundation model tech is turning its focus to a new research target: Earth science. This morning, NASA and IBM announced a partnership that leverages the agency’s suite of geospatial data and historical imagery to generate insights on how the Earth and its climate has changed over time. IBM’s AI will analyze petabytes—that’s thousands…
SkyFi Launches Satellite Imagery App
SkyFi believes that satellite imagery should be easily accessible and affordable for anyone to access. Today, the Austin, TX startup took a major step toward democratizing that data with the public launch of its mobile and web apps. The story so far: SkyFi built an entirely new app and interface for individuals to task satellites…
Exclusive: Quub Emerges from Stealth Mode, Announces Two Air Force Contracts
Today, satellite startup Quub emerged from stealth mode with two Air Force contracts in tow. Pronounced like “cube,” the Lancaster, PA-based startup bills itself as a “data company,” placing an emphasis on the value of its eventual downstream analytics products. But don’t get it twisted—Quub is taking a verticalized approach to Earth observation (EO) and…
SpaceX Launches Transporter-6 Mission with Stacked Manifest
For the first orbital launch of 2023, SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission launched 114 small satellites into orbit. The spacecraft on the manifest ranged from cubesats to hosted payloads to orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs). The Transporter satellite rideshare missions increasingly remind us of nesting dolls, as they launch space vehicles that in turn deploy even more space…
Space Agency Leaders Recap 2022
The world was busy in space this year. All together, there have been 174 successful orbital launches so far in 2022, and the world’s space agencies have pulled together over the course of the year to make major strides in science, technology, and exploration. Read on for our recap of the top events from space…
Q4 2022 News Roundup
Can you believe 2022 is nearly over? It’s been a jam-packed year for the space industry, full of groundbreaking moments in science, turbulence in the markets and world order; substantive policy developments; and historic mission firsts. We’re kicking off our year-end coverage by looking at objects closest in the rear-view mirror. Payload combed through the…
