First Light Image From Pelican-3 Satellite Released
Multiple Pelican Launches Planned by Planet Next Year
First light images from the Pelican-3 satellite of Turin, Italy have been released. The image shown here was taken on September 5 from an altitude of ≈301 miles, and image quality is expected to improve as the spacecraft complete the instrument calibration process and reach their final operational orbits. The Planet Labs Pelican-3 and Pelican-4 spacecraft launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 NAOS mission on August 26.
"These spacecraft are already demonstrating and reinforcing the incredible agility of the expanding Pelican constellation,”
Will Marshall, Planet
Pelican-3 and Pelican-4 join Pelican-2 and Pelican-1 (a smallsat platform tech demonstration launched in 2023) as part of Planet’s growing next-generation, high resolution constellation. This first generation of Pelican satellites provide high resolution imagery across 6 multispectral bands that are optimized for cross-sensor analysis. These Pelicans are designed to provide up to 40 cm class resolution imagery and have NVIDIA Jetson AI chips on board for on-orbit computing at the edge. Planet expects its next generation of Pelican satellites, launching beginning next year, to reach 30 cm imagery.
"These spacecraft are already demonstrating and reinforcing the incredible agility of the expanding Pelican constellation,” said Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet. “Our Pelican satellites offer state-of-the-art capabilities, from high resolution to rapid revisits to AI processing at the edge, driven by the NVIDIA Jetson platform on board. With a fully ramped Pelican production line, we’re building and launching Pelicans at our fastest pace yet.”
Pelican-3 and Pelican-4 join Pelican-2 and Pelican-1 (a smallsat platform tech demonstration launched in 2023) as part of Planet’s growing next-generation, high resolution constellation. This first generation of Pelican satellites provide high resolution imagery across 6 multispectral bands that are optimized for cross-sensor analysis. These Pelicans are designed to provide up to 40 cm class resolution imagery and have NVIDIA Jetson AI chips on board for on-orbit computing at the edge. Planet expects its next generation of Pelican satellites, launching beginning next year, to reach 30 cm imagery.
“Capturing first light images this quickly is a tremendous achievement for the Pelican team, and demonstrates the progress we’ve made in reducing our time to making our spacecraft operational,” said Brian Lewis, Mission Director, Pelican. “Our growing Pelican fleet scales up our ability to rapidly provide customers with the critical imagery they need to make informed decisions at the pace of global change.”