NASA extends contract with Planet Labs for satellite data on climate - Federal Times

WASHINGTON — Planet Labs, an operator of a fleet of 200 satellites that collect images and data about the Earth, said NASA exercised an option to extend its contract with the company under the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program through September 2023.

Terms were not disclosed.

Planet has been providing data to NASA scientists and federally funded researchers under this program since 2018. Through this contract, hundreds of thousands researchers funded by U.S. federal agencies and the National Science Foundation, including their contractors and grantees, have access to Planet data, allowing them to study the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, disaster response and more, the company said in a statement.

“As our world experiences greater biodiversity loss and climate change, it’s more critical than ever that we have the tools in place to power action,” said Robbie Schingler, co-founder and CSO at Planet. “We are eager to see how this group of NASA scientists and federally funded researchers continue to leverage Planet’s data to help us better understand our changing Earth system. Working together, it is our hope that we can better monitor nature and human-led change and avert our planetary emergency.”

In the last year alone, users under the CSDA Program downloaded the equivalent of over five times the entire Earth’s landmass in Planet data, generating a deep repository of information to be used in studies, the company said. From exploring the effects on the world’s food supply due to the war in Ukraine to monitoring harmful sargassum inundation on Florida beaches, tracking walruses driven to shore in Alaska due to climate change, and mapping the spatial extent of the areas affected by wildfires, these researchers are rethinking the possible when it comes to better understanding and protecting Earth’s ecosystems.

Since its founding in 2010 by three NASA scientists, San Francisco-based Planet has made a name for itself as a prominent provider of commercial satellite imagery. As the government has pushed to use more commercial imagery for its needs, the company has scooped up a number of important contracts.

The National Reconnaissance Office has a contract with Planet for daily 3-5 meter resolution images, and Planet is one of just a handful of satellite imagery companies awarded study contracts by the agency. In November, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency added Planet data to its Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery system, a portal that provides unclassified imagery to the federal government and 55 foreign partners.

NASA established the CSDA Program to identify, evaluate, and acquire data from commercial sources that support Earth science research and application goals.

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https://www.federaltimes.com/govcon/2022/10/14/nasa-extends-contract-with-planet-labs-for-satellite-data-on-climate/

2022-10-14 13:30:30Z
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