Planet Labs launches Pelican-12 satellite, its 25th of 2026

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) announced the successful launch of Pelican-12, an updated second-generation high-resolution Pelican satellite, aboard SpaceX's Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The launch marks Planet's 25th satellite sent to orbit in 2026 across four launches, and the fifth Pelican launched this year. Planet said it has made initial contact with the satellite and begun the commissioning process, which includes lowering its orbital altitude.

Pelican-12 launched roughly three months after Pelican-11, an engineering pathfinder satellite launched in July. The new satellite carries updated payload and communication systems informed by the earlier mission.

Among the technologies aboard Pelican-12 is a prototype communication package designed to test satellite-to-satellite communications for SES Space & Defense by downlinking imagery via the company's O3b mPOWER satellites. Planet said the demonstration is part of its work to explore commercial data relay services that could reduce data delivery latency for customers. The satellite also carries the Nvidia Jetson platform for onboard edge computing to support on-orbit AI inferencing.

Second-generation Pelican satellites are designed to provide up to 30 cm class imagery, compared with 50 cm class imagery captured by first-generation models. Planet said Pelican production at its expanded Berlin facility is scheduled to start in 2026, with additional Pelican launches planned for 2027.

You May Also Be Interested In

• Putin's Aide Says War In Ukraine Moving Toward An End - Vesti
• NASA to evaluate Planet Labs hyperspectral satellite data for Earth science
• Valero Energy (VLO) call ratio 1.1 calls to 1 put into quarter results