Insider Brief
- Planet secured a $230 million contract with an undisclosed Asia-Pacific company to expand its Pelican satellite constellation, its largest deal to date, according to CNBC.
- The multi-year contract funds the construction and operation of satellites, giving the customer exclusive regional access while allowing Planet to license data elsewhere.
- Planet expects the deal to boost revenue starting in fiscal 2026, with payments spread over seven years, as it accelerates the deployment of up to 32 next-generation Pelican satellites.
- Image: Artistic rendering of a Pelican satellite. (Planet)
Satellite imagery provider Planet secured its largest deal yet, a $230 million contract with an undisclosed Asia-Pacific company, advancing the deployment of its high-powered Pelican satellites, according to CNBC.
“It is a momentum-building event. … It’s both our biggest deal ever and it’s a significant step for us into this satellite services business,” Planet CEO Will Marshall told CNBC.
The agreement, announced today (Jan. 29), will fund the construction and operation of Pelican satellites for a long-standing partner, whose identity Planet has yet to reveal. The contract spans multiple years — covering a construction period of “a couple of years” and five years of operations, Marshall told the financial network. The customer will have exclusive access to the satellites within its region, while Planet retains the right to license the data elsewhere.
The deal will not impact Planet’s financial projections for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2025. However, the company expects to see revenue from the contract starting in fiscal 2026, with payments spread over about seven years.
Planet operates more than 200 satellites in orbit and has been working on the next-generation Pelican constellation since 2021. The new fleet is meant to replace the SkySat satellites acquired from Google in 2017.
Planned Launches
The company aims to launch up to 32 Pelican satellites, which the company reports will help its ability to capture high-resolution images and analyze real-time data. Earlier this month, Planet launched its first operational satellite for the constellation, Pelican-2, which includes Nvidia’s Jetson edge artificial intelligence platform for faster image processing.
With this latest deal, Planet has secured funding to build more Pelican satellites than initially planned.
“We only had financials to specifically build a subset of [those 32 Pelican satellites], and now we’ve got the financials to build more, and so we’re scaling much faster,” Marshall told CNBC.
The contract follows another multi-year deal with the European Space Agency, disclosed Tuesday, though financial details of that agreement were not provided.
Expanding Satellite Capabilities
Planet specializes in Earth imaging, providing high-resolution satellite photos and data for industries ranging from agriculture to defense. The Pelican constellation aims to offer more frequent and detailed images than its predecessors. This increase will allow customers to monitor locations with near real-time updates.
The company’s data is used for applications such as tracking climate change, managing disaster response and monitoring geopolitical developments.
The growing demand for high-resolution satellite imagery has driven competition among firms like Maxar and BlackSky, which also provide data services to governments and private customers. Planet’s shift into dedicated satellite services represents an effort to lock in long-term revenue streams rather than relying solely on selling imagery on demand.
CNBC reports Planet’s stock initially surged 14% following the announcement before retreating to near its prior closing price of $5.46 per share.
Matt Swayne
With a several-decades long background in journalism and communications, Matt Swayne has worked as a science communicator for an R1 university for more than 12 years, specializing in translating high tech and deep tech for the general audience. He has served as a writer, editor and analyst at The Space Impulse since its inception. In addition to his service as a science communicator, Matt also develops courses to improve the media and communications skills of scientists and has taught courses.
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