Supplier · United States
Planet builds and operates Google's Suncatcher prototype on the bus planned for its Owl satellites, and runs onboard GPU inference on its own Pelican satellites. It is a builder and host, not an orbital data center operator.
Shared launches: Transporter-18 (2026-10-01) with Google Suncatcher.
Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown
It built and launched the Suncatcher prototype on 1 Oct 2026, and its Pelican-4 ran onboard GPU inference in March 2026.[1][2]
What the stage means: Its own compute satellite flown.
DoneConfirmed
Named Google's Suncatcher prototype partner
Google is also a Planet investor.
Source: Google
DoneConfirmed
Listed in NVIDIA space computing partner release
Source: NVIDIA
DoneConfirmed
Pelican-4 detects aircraft onboard with a Jetson Orin
About 80% accuracy on raw imagery.
Sources: Via Satellite; Planet (Business Wire)
DoneConfirmed
Launched the Suncatcher demo satellite with 19 other Planet satellites on Transporter-18
Source: Planet (Business Wire)
Targets as the organisation stated them. When a date moved, every move is listed with its source; a narrower window is shown as a narrowing.
2027
Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google[1]
early 2027 (Planet executive, as reported)
Owl satellite compute demo with NVIDIA GPUs[1]
What to watch · SpaceNexus note, not a prediction
The 2027 Suncatcher pair and the Owl GPU demo.
Will Marshall (co-founder, CEO)
| Program | Stage | Verified funding | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planet (this page) | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | 2027: Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google |
| Aethero | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | $8.4M | Oct 2026: Titan: Jetson Thor compute cluster on EnduroSat FRAME-15 |
| Altair | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | 2027: The other nine satellites of the first ten |
| Google Suncatcher | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | 2027: Two-satellite mission testing inter-satellite laser links |
| KP Labs | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | Mid-2026: Leopard DPU on ESA OPS-SAT VOLT |
| Orbital Chenguang | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | 2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies |
| Space String | Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown | Not counted | Q4 2027: G1 verification satellite (11.5 kW compute payload) |
Evidence reviewed 5 Oct 2026, fact-checked against primary sources. Nothing on this page is sponsored, and no company can pay to change, reorder or preview it. Spotted an error? Report a correction. How stages and labels work.
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