Jane Edwards
Earth imagery company Planet will provide researchers at all U.S. federal civilian agencies access to PlanetScope satellite imagery under an expanded contract with NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program.
“Responding to today’s climate crisis and the loss of biological diversity is urgently important, and the Earth observation community plays a critical role,” Robbie Schingler, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Planet, said in a statement published Thursday.
Schingler said the company is excited to deliver data to more researchers to help them discover trends, highlight facts and prototype new platforms to advance scientific understanding and drive climate action.
In 2019, Planet secured its first contract from NASA to provide Earth observation data. Scientists have accessed the company’s imagery to conduct research on climate change, biodiversity loss and other topics since then.
The company said approximately 280,000 users from federal civilian agencies, including researchers funded by the National Science Foundation, are expected to use PlanetScope imagery.
The announcement came weeks after Planet agreed to merge with special acquisition purpose company dMY Technology Group as part of efforts to become a publicly traded satellite imagery and geospatial platforms provider.
