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Partnership adds Planet’s high-resolution SkySat satellites to HEO’s growing sensor network, increasing revisit rates, viewing angles, and imaging consistency for space domain awareness customers
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Sydney, Australia {Tuesday, August 18, 2026} - HEO and Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) today announced a partnership to integrate Planet’s SkySat constellation into HEO’s Non-Earth Imaging (NEI) sensor network for select customers. The agreement will expand HEO’s on-orbit imaging capabilities while unlocking new revenue streams for Planet through the utilisation of previously unused satellite capacity.
Under the partnership, HEO’s proprietary software and NEI operational expertise will be combined with Planet’s SkySat constellation, a fleet of high-resolution satellites in low-Earth orbit, to enable automated, on-demand imaging of artificial resident space objects for HEO’s U.S. Government customers today, with the potential to expand the partnership in the future. The integration follows HEO’s established model of augmenting partner satellite operations through software, without interfering with the primary mission.
The addition of SkySat brings HEO's NEI sensor network to over 50 in-orbit sensors and delivers four distinct operational advantages for customers. Planet's SkySat constellation increases HEO's imaging frequency over priority objects, enabling more consistent pattern-of-life analysis and faster time to image. SkySat's orbital profile unlocks higher-resolution NEI over a select band of orbital altitudes and new viewing angles on space objects, supporting more complete three-dimensional assessments and understanding of satellites. Together, these additions increase the reliability and repeatability of high-quality NEI collection, reducing gaps caused by orbital geometry and satellite availability.
"Space Domain Awareness has rapidly emerged as a core mission priority across the defense and intelligence communities," said Jon Powers, General Manager of Planet Federal. "Planet has heard increasing calls for the need to detect and characterize potentially nefarious activity in space, from space, and by integrating our high-resolution SkySat constellation with HEO's analytic expertise, we are bringing rapid, scalable on-orbit imaging capacity to our customers. We are proud to deliver this expanded capability to help protect and monitor high-value orbital assets."
“Planet operates the world’s largest commercial Earth observation constellation. That’s an extraordinary amount of on-orbit capacity,” said Dr Will Crowe, CEO & Co-Founder of HEO. “Partnering with them means we can harness their unused capacity and convert it to a genuine information advantage for our customers”
NEI products collected via Planet’s SkySat satellites will be accessible through HEO Inspect, HEO’s automated tasking and delivery platform. Customers can request imaging tasks directly through the platform with HEO’s software automatically identifying collection opportunities and coordinating with Planet’s mission scheduling system. Collected imagery and metadata are processed through HEO’s object detection and analytics pipeline to generate actionable intelligence reports.
About Planet
Planet is a leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions. Planet is driven by a mission to image the world every day, and make change visible, accessible and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest Earth observation fleet of imaging satellites. Planet provides mission-critical data, advanced insights, and software solutions to customers comprising the world’s leading agriculture, forestry, intelligence, education and finance companies and government agencies, enabling users to simply and effectively derive unique value from satellite imagery. Planet is a public benefit corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange as PL. To learn more visit www.planet.com and follow us on X, LinkedIn, or tune in to HBO’s ‘Wild Wild Space’.
About HEO
HEO is a Non-Earth Imaging (NEI) company that builds and operates the sensors, software, and analytical infrastructure needed to image, characterise, and understand objects in orbit at scale. Our platform automates the full intelligence workflow across the industry's most extensive on-orbit sensor network, combining purpose-built HEO payloads with partner constellations, from collection tasking through to analysis and insights. Governments, defence agencies, and commercial operators rely on HEO to gain an information advantage at scale, supporting the inspection and maintenance of high-value assets, monitoring the behaviour of satellites, and characterising debris.
HEO is headquartered in Australia, with offices in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. www.heospace.com
Planet Press
Claire Bentley Dale
press@planet.com
Planet Investor Relations
Cleo Palmer-Poroner
ir@planet.com
HEO Press
Dane Brumm
media@heospace.com
