Tag Archives: Planet Labs

Climate change products will get more high definition for customers of Planet, as the Earth observation company plans new satellites, more frequent revisit times and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support independent journalism. SUBSCRIBE TODAY

It was years in the making, but on March 29 Global Affairs Canada issued Planet Labs a full operating license for their Inuvik based ground station.

One year after U.S. based Planet Labs Inc. threatened to pull its ground station assets out of Inuvik, and nearly three years after submitting a license request to operate in Canada’s high Arctic, the company has a Provisional License to operate its ground station.

Recently at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium both Planet and KSAT threatened to pull ground station assets out of Canada by June 1 if progress hadn’t been made in approving their licenses. Then news came from New North Networks, the company which manages the ground station infrastructure in Inuvik, that they had heard from Global Affairs Canada and that an approval of sorts had been received. …

Planet took the opportunity while presenting at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium to deliver a very public ultimatum to Global Affairs Canada. Either there is measurable progress on licensing of their ground stations in Inuvik by June 1, or they will dismantle them and leave Canada. And they weren’t the only company to threaten this action.

While innovation is seemingly in every funding press release issued by the government, there’s little innovation happening in Ottawa’s bureaucracy, and that’s hampering business to the point that foreign investment dollars in Canada’s space sector might head for more responsive countries. Throw in an apparent government conflict of interest, and you’ve got a Made in Ottawa bureaucratic migraine for the government.

In July 2015 Planet Labs made a significant purchase in acquiring Lethbridge based Blackbridge and its Rapideye constellation of five satellites. Combined with Planet’s Dove satellites, they are now offering an ever expanding suite of imagery products, with the precision agriculture and mapping segments leading the way.