Planet Labs Launches 3 AI-Powered Pelican Satellites Into Orbit

Planet Labs has launched three new AI-enabled Pelican satellites via SpaceX, including one for Sweden’s armed forces, advancing Earth observation capabilities in 2026.

Planet Labs PBC launched three additional high-resolution Pelican satellites Saturday aboard a SpaceX CAS500-2 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the company announced.

One of the three spacecraft is the first satellite to reach orbit under a recently signed contract with the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF), a deal Planet described as a nine-figure agreement. The company said it has already made initial contact with all three satellites and begun the commissioning process.

The launch marks the first Pelican deployment of 2026, building on five Pelican satellites placed into orbit during 2025.

The SwAF satellite gives Sweden a sovereign orbital intelligence capability roughly four months after the contract was signed years ahead of the country’s original 2030 target. According to Planet, the mission will enable the Swedish military to monitor threats in strategic regions including the Arctic, while also strengthening collective situational awareness within NATO.

Kicking off our first Pelican launch of 2026 demonstrates the pace at which we’re scaling our most advanced constellation to date, with higher resolution, faster repeat rates, and lower latency.
Will Marshall, Co-founder and CEO of Planet.

Each of the three spacecraft is a first-generation Pelican satellite built to capture imagery at 50-centimeter-class resolution across six multispectral bands. Moreover, every satellite carries NVIDIA’s Jetson AI platform, which enables on-orbit edge computing allowing artificial intelligence to process imagery directly in space before transmitting results to the ground.

Planet previously demonstrated this capability on Pelican-4, where AI-driven object detection was executed in near real-time while the satellite passed 500 kilometers above Alice Springs, Australia.

Once commissioning is complete, the three new satellites will join the existing Pelican Gen 1 fleet to support the company’s 50-centimeter high-resolution tasking services.

Planet said it plans to continue expanding the constellation throughout the remainder of 2026. The company intends to launch additional Gen 1 satellites as well as the first of its second-generation (Gen 2) Pelicans, which are designed to achieve up to 30-centimeter-class resolution, a meaningful step up from the current generation.

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The full Pelican constellation is planned to include 32 satellites and is designed to revisit any point on Earth up to 10 times per day once complete.

The company’s contract backlog reached $900 million by March 2026, with customers spanning defense, agriculture, forestry, finance, and government sectors.

Disclaimer: This news is based on publicly available information. NervNow has not verified it independently.

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