EO
Stories about the Earth Observation industry’s eyes on our planet.
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…
Maxar, Aerojet Rocketdyne Agree to $6.4B and $4.7B Takeovers
On Friday morning, the markets woke up to quite a surprise: A PE firm was taking Maxar ($MAXR) private in a mega-deal worth $6.4B. Then, we saw a monster merger confirmed Sunday evening, with L3Harris ($LHX) agreeing to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne ($AJRD). $MAXR take-private Maxar’s board voted unanimously to enter into a definitive merger agreement…
Satellogic Gives Q3 Update
Satellogic ($SATL) expects 2022 revenue to be in the $6M–$8M range, the EO satellite operator said in a Thursday business update. In H1 ‘22, “Satellogic took the most significant steps in our history towards realizing our mission, beginning to fully commercialize low Earth Observation,” chief executive Emiliano Kargieman said. By the numbers The highlights: Satellogic…
Planet Reports Record Q3 Earnings
Yesterday, Planet ($PL) reported nearly Q3 revenue and projected an annual haul of nearly $200M. The results speak to “strong execution across the company and the mission-critical nature of our data,” CEO Will Marshall said. To start… …the self-described “Bloomberg terminal for Earth data” would point you to its scale. Planet is currently flying ~200…
ESA Gets Nearly 17% Funding Boost
‘Twas a busy time in Paris last week. The European Space Agency announced a new cohort of astronauts and announced a budget of €16.9B for the next three years. The sum falls short of the €18.5B requested by the agency, but still represents a 17% increase over the prior period. Lots of 17s last week: …
Exclusive: SynMax Raises $6M
SynMax, a satellite data analytics startup specializing in oil, gas and dark ship monitoring, has raised a $6M seed round from a group of existing customers. Bill Perkins, an energy trader and cofounder of SkyFi, and GeoSol Capital LLC participated in the round. What’s the name of the game for SynMax? The Houston startup is…
Lockheed Martin and Nvidia Partner on Weather Digital Twin for NOAA
Lockheed Martin and Nvidia are joining forces to develop a global weather digital twin for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the two companies announced Thursday. The AI-driven earth observation system will help NOAA monitor and increase global weather conditions, including extreme events increasing in frequency. Digital twin, you say? Digital twins are virtual…
Deutsche Bank Initiates Coverage of $PL and $BKSY
Deutsche Bank has initiated coverage on Planet ($PL) with a $7 price target and BlackSky ($BKSY) with a $3 target, issuing buy ratings on both companies, according to a note seen by Payload. Why EO? Space technology is a difficult and capital-intensive endeavor, which raises red flags for risk-averse investors (and especially when frothy markets…
