SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 25, 2026--
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about change on Earth, today announced that Pelican-12, an updated second generation (Gen 2) high resolution Pelican™, has arrived at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida ahead of its launch aboard the upcoming Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission with SpaceX.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260925502401/en/
Pelican-12 leverages key learnings from Pelican-11, which launched in July. Shipping less than three months later with updates to the payload and communication systems, Pelican-12 demonstrates Planet's end-to-end agile engineering. Like its predecessors, Pelican-12 will allow Planet to test and validate new technologies ahead of integration on future Planet spacecraft.
Planet is working to test commercial data relay services onboard its constellations to minimize latency in its delivery of data to customers. This Pelican satellite is designed to support intersatellite communications using a steerable antenna, and aims to enable two-way communications at higher data rates than the 1 Mbps achieved in an initial demonstration in 2025.
While Planet’s first generation (Gen 1) Pelicans are designed to capture 50 cm class imagery, Gen 2 Pelicans are designed to provide up to 30 cm class imagery - further improving use cases such as agricultural monitoring, critical infrastructure management, and natural disaster response. Pelican-12 is also equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson platform to accelerate on-orbit edge compute, a capability Planet demonstrated by running AI-driven, near real-time object detection onboard Pelican-4. By utilizing its onboard NVIDIA Jetson module, Pelican-12 will help Planet explore new ways to close the latency gap with real-time insights, reduce downlink costs, and continue building towards a future of planetary-scale Earth intelligence.
Pelican-12 will be the fifth Pelican to launch in 2026, showing the rapid expansion of this next-generation, high-resolution constellation. Planet is continuing to scale its Pelican production capacity, with manufacturing at its expanded Berlin facility set to begin this year. Planet plans to launch additional Pelican spacecraft in 2027 to continue to meet growing customer demand for Planet’s high-resolution data products and Satellite Services offerings.
To learn more about Planet’s Pelican constellations and capabilities, visit https://www.planet.com/constellations/pelican/.
About Planet Labs PBC
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 commercial 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’.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release are “forward-looking statements” about Planet within the meaning of the securities laws, including statements about the expansion of the high resolution capacity of Planet’s fleet, the delivery of such capacity to Planet customers, and the Company’s ability to realize any of the potential benefits from product and satellite launches, either as designed, within the expected time frame, in a cost-effective manner, or at all. Such statements, which are not of historical fact, involve estimates, assumptions, judgments and uncertainties. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those addressed in the forward-looking statements, including risks related to the macroeconomic environment. Such factors are detailed in Planet’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Planet does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events, except as required by applicable law.
Pelican-12 photographed at Planet Labs' San Francisco headquarters ahead of its departure to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Saudi Arabia's top cleric has issued a rare statement, calling on the kingdom's troops to defend the country from neighboring Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Yemen is deteriorating as fighting escalates, further straining the country's overstretched health sector.
In New York, the wars in Iran and Gaza have dominated the agenda at the U.N. General Assembly, where the leaders of Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt were scheduled to address the United Nations later Friday.
Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.
With Saudi oil facilities, cities and ships off its coast coming under escalating attacks, the kingdom's top religious authority has called on soldiers to be prepared to defend the country from Iran-backed Houthis.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzan, who traditionally avoids weighing in on politics in a country that holds enormous influence among Muslims worldwide, issued the strongly worded statement. Al-Fawzan addressed his message to soldiers defending the kingdom's borders and members of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen, peppering it with Quranic verses and religious edicts.
“Protecting this great nation, guarding its borders, defending against aggression and punishing those who want to harm any inch of it is one of the greatest duties,” he said in the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Thursday.
Israel’s military said two of its soldiers were killed in northern Gaza on Thursday while inspecting an unexploded Israeli drone near a military post. They were the first Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in months.
The drone exploded as the soldiers, Ofek Moalem and Nadav Kali, approached it, the military said Friday. They were evacuated to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The incident is under investigation.
Five other Israeli soldiers have been killed since last October’s ceasefire that attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones and have killed 1,408 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
The human toll of renewed hostilities in Yemen has stretched beyond the battlefield, overwhelming a health system already battered by years of war.
More than 130,000 people have fled their homes as fighting escalates between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces. Fewer than 10% of health centers in affected areas are equipped to provide the care that wounded people need, according to the World Health Organization. Years of war have left hospitals with little capacity.
Children share emergency room beds, pregnant women are being turned away from health centers and medical supplies are running low.
The most recent round of fighting began in July after the Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi ships in the key Bab el-Mandeb strait, adding to pressure on global trade already disrupted by the war in Iran and the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
The U.N. agency for Palestinians has met behind the scenes with officials from the U.S.-created Board of Peace, though the board has declared that the agency — known as UNRWA — will have no role in a future Gaza.
Publicly, UNRWA has not been included in the board's planning for the territory's postwar future. But Philippe Lazzarini, the U.N. agency’s last chief, told The Associated Press that members of a Palestinian technocratic committee are clear they want to work with the agency.
“They know that if you get completely rid of the agency today, it might have a further ... devastating impact on the population,” Lazzarini said.
The dynamic underscores how central UNRWA remains to addressing Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the fragile ceasefire, even as Israel has sought to marginalize it. Israel alleges the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas militants, claims the International Court of Justice has said have not been substantiated.
Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian discussed efforts to de-escalate regional tensions with Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as the country's prime minister.
The talks took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, according to an X post Friday by the Qatari foreign ministry. Qatar has often acted as an intermediary between the U.S. and Iran.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A young man holds a Saudi flag while standing through the sunroof of a vehicle during celebrations marking Saudi Arabia's 96th National Day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Palestinians walk amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
This image taken from undated video released by the Ansar Allah Media Office, the media arm of Yemen's Houthi rebels, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, shows, according to the group, Houthi fighters firing rifles during clashes with Saudi-backed forces at an undisclosed location in Yemen. (Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)
Men perform the traditional Saudi sword dance known as the ardah during celebrations marking Saudi Arabia's 96th National Day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
