Stoke and Planet Announce Multi-Launch Agreement

Today, we’re announcing a multi-launch agreement with Planet Labs PBC, a leading provider of daily data and insights about change on Earth. Planet’s satellites will fly aboard Nova from Stoke’s expanding Space Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, the pad that sent John Glenn into orbit in 1962. This agreement has been in the works for a while, and we’re excited to share it today.

Why Planet

Planet builds and operates the largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites in orbit and captures imagery of Earth's landmass every day. The company develops spacecraft through a process it calls agile aerospace, and each new generation of satellites builds on what the last one learned in orbit. Operators like Planet launch on a regular basis to expand and replenish their fleets, and that steady demand is what our Nova fleet is designed to serve.

The partnership

Multiple launches, planned around Planet's mission needs. Launch built around the customer's schedule is central to what we're building, and a fully reusable vehicle is what makes that kind of flexibility reliable.

A lighter footprint

Full reuse is how launch becomes infrastructure, and it changes the footprint of every mission. Nothing is left in orbit or in the ocean, and each vehicle we fly again cuts down on the material and energy that go into building new hardware for every launch. The constellation that work supports is doing the same kind of thing on orbit: Planet images Earth's entire landmass on a near-daily basis, and that record is used by defense and intelligence agencies, farmers and foresters, disaster-response teams, and financial and infrastructure analysts to see change as it happens — from illegal logging and methane leaks to floods, urban growth and economic activity. All of it depends on satellites reaching orbit often and affordably.

Learn more about the partnership here.