Planet designs, manufactures and operates one of the world's largest commercial Earth-imaging fleets. Its architecture is built around repeated observation: PlanetScope monitors broad areas at near-daily cadence, SkySat and Pelican provide higher-resolution tasking, Tanager adds hyperspectral sensing and Owl is designed to move the broad-area monitoring layer toward 1-meter-class imagery.
For defense and intelligence users, Planet's strongest role is persistent commercial monitoring and tip-and-cue. A customer can use broad-area collection to identify change across a region, then direct Pelican, SkySat, synthetic-aperture radar or government sensors toward the event. The advantage is not that Planet replaces national systems. It creates a frequently refreshed, commercially sourced and more easily shareable layer beneath them.
That model matters inside a military architecture increasingly built around proliferated sensors and data-sharing. Planet is not part of the Space Development Agency's transport mesh, but the operational logic is complementary: wide-area commercial observation can help cue higher-value sensors and feed unclassified intelligence into networks such as the Pentagon's proliferated orbital mesh.
PlanetScope is the company's broad-area monitoring layer. Planet says it operates more than 200 satellites in orbit and collects more than 350 million square kilometers of imagery daily; PlanetScope remains the broad-area monitoring layer. PlanetScope provides multispectral imagery designed for repeated observation, change detection and large-area monitoring rather than fine object identification.
Owl is Planet's planned next-generation monitoring constellation. The company is designing it for near-daily 1-meter-class imagery across Earth's landmass, a swath wider than 60 kilometers, onboard edge computing and PlanetScope-compatible spectral bands. The first technology demonstration was planned for late 2026, so Owl remains a development program until on-orbit performance is demonstrated.
SkySat remains Planet's established high-resolution tasking layer, offering roughly 50-centimeter-class imagery and sub-daily revisits. Planet acquired the constellation through its 2017 purchase of Terra Bella from Google.
Pelican is Planet's next-generation high-resolution tasking constellation. Generation 1 products are sampled at 50 centimeters per pixel. Planet launched the Pelican-11 Generation 2 technology demonstration in July 2026 and says the Generation 2 architecture is intended to progress toward 30-centimeter-class products. Pelican is engineered for rapid tasking and low-latency delivery. The spacecraft also use NVIDIA Jetson hardware for onboard artificial-intelligence workloads and data prioritization.
Tanager is Planet's hyperspectral line. Its imaging spectrometer captures approximately 426 spectral bands from roughly 380 to 2,500 nanometers at 30-meter pixel resolution. Carbon Mapper uses Tanager data for methane detection, while the broader sensor class can support material, mineral, vegetation and environmental analysis where the spectral signature is strong enough to resolve.
The Planet Insights Platform combines imagery, archive search, tasking, mosaics, derived products, analytical feeds, application programming interfaces and cloud workflows. The strategic goal is to move customers from buying images toward operating repeatable geospatial workflows.
Planet SuperRes uses artificial intelligence to create a 2-meter-class visual product from PlanetScope imagery. It is an enhancement layer, not a native 2-meter optical measurement. Defense users should retain source imagery, collection metadata and confidence information when an enhanced product supports an intelligence judgment.
Planet increasingly builds dedicated spacecraft or reserves dedicated capacity for national customers. These agreements can include satellite manufacturing, launch, direct downlink, operations, imagery access and analytical services. This changes Planet from a shared-data provider into a supplier of sovereign space infrastructure.
| Date | Customer / Awarding Body | Scope | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUG-2026 | National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency | Other Transaction Authority award to deploy Planet's Global Monitoring Service for crisis-response monitoring. | $8M | Awarded |
| AUG-2026 | German Federal Ministry of the Interior | Tender for dedicated-capacity satellite services for German civil-government users. | Up to €25M over 5 years* | Awarded |
| AUG-2026 | European defense & intelligence customer | One-year agreement for high-resolution global mosaics and dedicated professional-services support for operational planning. | 7 figures | Awarded |
| JUN-2026 | National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency | One-year Luno B extension for AI-enabled maritime surveillance plus a separate crisis-response monitoring award announced with Q1 results. | $21.9M extension | Active |
| DEC-2025 | Swedish Armed Forces | Multi-year sovereign package of customer-owned Pelican satellites, imagery access and AI-enabled situational-awareness services. The first sovereign reconnaissance satellite launched in May 2026 and Planet reported handover during Q2. | Low 9 figures | Active delivery |
| JUL-2025 | German government-funded customer | Dedicated Pelican capacity, direct downlink, PlanetScope and SkySat access plus AI-enabled situational and maritime awareness. | €240M | Active |
| 29-JAN-2025 | SKY Perfect JSAT | Dedicated Pelican-based Earth-observation constellation built and operated by Planet. | $230M | Active |
| FY26 | National Reconnaissance Office | Electro-Optical Commercial Layer work under the NRO's commercial imagery procurement architecture. | IDIQ / task-order structure | Active vehicle |
*The German Interior Ministry tender's €25 million figure is a maximum possible value including options, not guaranteed revenue. Planet's $814.9 million company-wide backlog at 31-JUL-2026 is not a defense backlog. It includes $753.1 million of remaining performance obligations plus $61.7 million of cancellable contract value. Backlog excludes unexercised options and should not be treated as guaranteed revenue.
Planet's growth is increasingly tied to U.S. and allied-government demand for persistent commercial monitoring, maritime awareness, crisis response and sovereign space capability. Planet does not publish a single audited percentage labeled "defense revenue," so this profile does not infer one. The contract record shows that the National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Navy, NATO and European governments are material growth customers.
The sovereign model can produce larger and longer-duration agreements by combining spacecraft manufacturing, dedicated capacity, direct downlink, operations, imagery access and analytics. It also changes revenue timing because recognition may depend on manufacturing milestones, launch, commissioning, customer acceptance and multiyear service delivery.
At 31-JUL-2026, Planet reported $814.9 million of backlog and $753.1 million of remaining performance obligations. The company expects roughly 50% of backlog to be recognized within 12 months and roughly 70% within 24 months. Net dollar retention for the six months ended 31-JUL-2026 was 109%, up from 107% a year earlier, primarily because of large defense and intelligence contract expansions. Recurring annual contract value remained 98% of the book of business.
Pelican expands high-resolution tasking capacity and is the spacecraft platform used in several sovereign-service agreements. Owl is intended to upgrade the broad-area monitoring layer toward near-daily 1-meter-class imagery. Planet is also pushing its archive and daily collection into AI-assisted workflows, including natural-language query, automated detection, SuperRes and a GPU-native "planetary intelligence" initiative with NVIDIA.
Planet ended Q2 FY2027 with $865.4 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. During the quarter it sold approximately 3.8 million Class A shares under its at-the-market program, generating about $120 million net after expenses at an average net sale price of $31.95 per share. That liquidity supports fleet and manufacturing investment while increasing the share count.
Revenue reached $116.1 million, up 58% year over year. GAAP gross margin was 56.6%, GAAP net loss narrowed to $9.4 million and adjusted EBITDA profit reached $13.9 million. Full-year revenue guidance was raised at the low end to $430 million to $441 million.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency award expands Planet's crisis-response monitoring work and adds another AI-enabled commercial geospatial use case inside U.S. national-security workflows.
The German Federal Ministry of the Interior tender includes options and a maximum possible value of €25 million over five years. The ceiling should not be read as guaranteed revenue.
The launch brought Planet's reported high-resolution Pelicans on orbit to 10 and begins the on-orbit test path for a Generation 2 architecture intended to progress toward 30-centimeter-class imagery.
Planet reported handover of the Swedish Armed Forces' satellite after its May launch, an important execution milestone for the company's shift from data subscriptions toward customer-owned sovereign spacecraft and services.
Planet said the satellites were shipped to Vandenberg Space Force Base for launch with SpaceX, extending the hyperspectral mission and replenishing the PlanetScope monitoring constellation.
Planet said setup and operational-readiness work had begun and Pelican manufacturing in Berlin was scheduled to start during 2026, supporting European industrial participation and sovereign-service demand.
Planet is becoming a hybrid geospatial-data and sovereign-space supplier. The strategic asset is not only the size of the fleet. It is the combination of broad-area temporal coverage, a deep historical archive, high-resolution tasking, hyperspectral sensing, AI-enabled analysis and an increasingly credible ability to build and operate dedicated spacecraft for governments.
For Q3 FY2027, ending 31-OCT-2026, Planet expects revenue of approximately $101 million to $105 million, non-GAAP gross margin of 56% to 58%, adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $6 million to $1 million and capital expenditures of approximately $30 million to $37 million. For full-year FY2027, Planet expects revenue of approximately $430 million to $441 million, non-GAAP gross margin of 55% to 57%, adjusted EBITDA profit of approximately $3 million to $10 million and capital expenditures of approximately $100 million to $115 million.
Planet converts backlog on schedule, lands inside current FY2027 revenue guidance and keeps full-year adjusted EBITDA positive. Pelican capacity and sovereign-service milestones become a larger share of growth while the core recurring imagery business remains stable.
Planet delivers additional sovereign spacecraft on schedule, wins follow-on orders from allied governments and proves that AI-driven analytical products can generate incremental recurring revenue rather than serving mainly as a feature of existing imagery subscriptions. European manufacturing could strengthen eligibility in procurements that value local industrial participation.
Satellite manufacturing, launch, commissioning or customer acceptance delays shift revenue into later periods. Government customers reduce scope or delay funding. Optical competitors compress pricing while synthetic-aperture radar providers win missions where darkness, cloud or concealment limits optical collection. Higher capital expenditure and equity issuance could also dilute shareholders faster than operating leverage improves.
Planet's architecture was built around revisit frequency before exquisite resolution. That lets customers ask "what changed?" across very large areas before spending higher-resolution collection on the few locations that matter. Owl and Pelican are designed to tighten that monitoring-to-tasking loop.
A new entrant can launch a sensor with better spatial resolution tomorrow, but it cannot retroactively reproduce Planet's historical observation record. That archive gives Planet an advantage in change detection, longitudinal analysis and machine-learning training where consistent historical baselines matter.
Planet increasingly offers a sensor ladder rather than a single imagery product: PlanetScope for broad monitoring, Owl for planned higher-resolution monitoring, Pelican and SkySat for tasking and Tanager for hyperspectral analysis. The sensors are different, but the commercial advantage comes from exposing them through a common platform and workflow.
Planet designs satellites, builds them, operates the fleet, processes the data and distributes products through one platform. Repeated small-satellite production shortens learning cycles compared with a model built around rare flagship spacecraft. The same integration also puts manufacturing, launch and fleet-replenishment risk directly on Planet's balance sheet.
When a government buys dedicated capacity, direct downlink or a customer-owned spacecraft, the relationship becomes deeper than an imagery subscription. Mission planning, ground infrastructure, software and data workflows can create higher switching costs, but also higher delivery obligations.
A meaningful and increasing portion of revenue comes from U.S. and other government customers. Government contracts can be reduced, delayed, protested, not funded or terminated for convenience. International growth also increases export-control, industrial-participation and geopolitical exposure.
Backlog is broader than remaining performance obligations. At 31-JUL-2026, Planet reported $753.1 million of remaining performance obligations and $814.9 million of backlog, including $61.7 million of cancellable contract value. Backlog excludes unexercised options. Readers should track both the amount and the conversion schedule rather than treating backlog as guaranteed revenue.
Planet must manufacture, launch and commission Pelican, Owl and customer-dedicated spacecraft while maintaining its broad monitoring fleet. Optical imagery remains constrained by cloud, haze, smoke, illumination and concealment. Radar competitors can collect at night and through clouds.
Planet issued $460 million of 0.50% convertible senior notes due 2030 in September 2025. Public and private-placement warrants were eliminated during the first half of FY2027, but equity awards, convertible notes and the at-the-market equity program remain relevant to dilution. Planet sold about 3.8 million Class A shares under the ATM program during Q2 for roughly $120 million net. These tools provide liquidity but can increase the share count or create market overhang.
Class B shares carry 20 votes per share. Will Marshall and Robbie Schingler hold all issued and outstanding Class B shares, giving the founders outsized voting influence relative to their economic ownership.
Super-resolution and automated analytical products can create plausible but incorrect features or classifications. For defense use, enhanced imagery should remain traceable to original sensor data, metadata and confidence measures.
Planet remains loss-making under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, although Q2 FY2027 improved sharply: GAAP net loss narrowed to $9.4 million and adjusted EBITDA was positive $13.9 million. The six-month GAAP loss remained $148.2 million because Q1 included approximately $106.5 million of warrant-liability remeasurement expense. Planet still must fund satellite manufacturing, launches, product development and international expansion while proving durable positive operating economics.
Planet has not disclosed a standalone audited defense backlog. The Swedish Armed Forces agreement is described as low nine figures, while the August 2026 German Interior Ministry tender has a maximum possible value of €25 million including options. Do not infer customer-level backlog from the company-wide $814.9 million figure or treat option ceilings as committed revenue.
| Filed | Form | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03-SEP-2026 | 10-Q | Quarterly report for the period ended 31-JUL-2026, including Q2 FY2027 results, backlog/RPOs, ATM issuance and updated risk factors. | View → |
| 03-SEP-2026 | 8-K | Q2 FY2027 earnings release and related current disclosure. | Release → |
| 10-JUL-2026 | 8-K | 2026 annual meeting results, including director elections. | View → |
| 05-JUN-2026 | 10-K/A | Amendment to the FY2026 annual report. | View → |
| 05-JUN-2026 | 8-K | Equity Distribution Agreement establishing an at-the-market Class A common-stock program. | View → |
| 27-MAY-2026 | DEF 14A | 2026 proxy statement covering board composition, executive compensation and beneficial ownership. | View → |
| 23-MAR-2026 | 10-K | Annual report for the fiscal year ended 31-JAN-2026. | View → |
| Date | Insider / Role | Transaction | Shares | Price | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05-AUG-2026 | Robbie Schingler · Co-Founder, CSO & Director | Gift | 55,000 | $0 | Bona fide gift from a revocable trust; not a market sale. |
| 23-JUL-2026 | Ashley Johnson · President & CFO | 10b5-1 sale | 110,028 | $22.0804 avg. | 75,035 direct plus 34,993 through the Johnson Joint Revocable Trust; trading plan adopted 23-APR-2026. |
| 15-JUL-2026 | Kristen Robinson · Director | 10b5-1 sale | 37,107 | $25.0529 avg. | Shares were first transferred to a revocable trust, then sold under a plan adopted 22-JAN-2026. |
| 13-JUL-2026 | Gen. John W. Raymond · Director | 10b5-1 sale | 6,494 | $26.1582 avg. | Sale through Raymond Family Revocable Trust under a plan adopted 22-JAN-2026. |
| 10-JUL-2026 | Will Marshall · Co-Founder, CEO & Chairperson | 10b5-1 sale | 200,000 | $25.9197 avg. | Trading plan adopted 12-JUL-2025. |
| 10-JUL-2026 | Robbie Schingler · Co-Founder, CSO & Director | 10b5-1 sale | 89,593 | $25.9197 avg. | 25,000 trust shares plus 64,593 direct shares under a plan adopted 14-JUL-2025. |
Planet has a dual-class common-stock structure. Class A shares carry one vote per share while Class B shares carry 20 votes per share. As of 27-AUG-2026, Planet reported 340,354,193 Class A shares and 23,493,796 Class B shares outstanding. Founder voting control should be assessed using the proxy statement and the Class B voting rights, not economic ownership alone.
Will Marshall, Robbie Schingler and Chris Boshuizen founded the company as Cosmogia in 2010 after work at NASA Ames Research Center. Their core bet was the opposite of the traditional Earth-observation model: use many small satellites, refresh hardware frequently and collect the same places repeatedly instead of relying on a small number of long-lived, highly exquisite spacecraft.
Planet launched early Dove spacecraft in 2013 and began deploying larger Flock groups from the International Space Station in 2014. It acquired BlackBridge and RapidEye in 2015, then acquired Terra Bella and the SkySat constellation from Google in 2017. Later acquisitions including Boundless Spatial, VanderSat and Sinergise expanded geospatial software, environmental analytics and cloud-native access.
Planet completed its business combination with dMY Technology Group IV in December 2021 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The next strategic turn accelerated in 2025 and 2026 as Planet moved beyond shared imagery subscriptions into dedicated satellite services for government and commercial customers. Agreements with SKY Perfect JSAT, German government-funded customers and the Swedish Armed Forces tied growth to spacecraft manufacturing, dedicated capacity, direct downlink and multiyear operations. By 2026, Planet was also expanding Pelican manufacturing in Berlin and using sovereign services as a central growth vector.