Satellogic is a company specialized in Earth-observation (EO) satellites headquartered in Argentina. On May 4th, Satellogic announced it signed a Multiple Launch Agreement (MLA) with SpaceX to deploy a satellite constellation of 68 satellites capable of capturing photos of Earth in sub-meter resolution.
"This new MLA follows the current MLA covering 2022 launches, and confirms that SpaceX continues to be Satellogic’s preferred vendor for rideshare missions, meeting the capacity demands of Satellogic’s constellation roadmap and providing shorter periods between satellite development and deployment," the company stated in a press release.
In April, SpaceX launched 5 Satellogic satellites atop a Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-4 rideshare mission. To date, Satellogic operates 22 high-resolution EO satellites. “Following our previous launch successes with SpaceX, we are pleased to have signed this MLA to continue our work together in 2023 and beyond,” said Co-Founder and CEO of Satellogic Emiliano Kargieman. “Today’s announcement ensures that we will be able to continue to launch our satellites as they are produced and that we remain on track to collect every square meter of the Earth’s surface every week in 2023, providing our customers with the most up-to-date, reliable high-resolution data source on a global scale. Expanding our capacity is crucial to making Earth Observation data affordable and accessible for everyone.”
Earth-observation satellites enable organizations to have aerial views of our planet from space that helps to assess a wide-range of situations. Images captured by EO satellites can help global governments with national security and to keep civilians safe when disaster strikes. On May 6, Satellogic shared some high-resolution images captured by its satellites of Ukraine amid the war with Russia that show the recent destruction of the city of Mariupol. "Ukraine authorities announced a city-wide evacuation of Mariupol this week. These images show infrastructure damage over the last few weeks. Continuous EO [Earth Observation] monitoring provides a dynamic view of changing ground conditions to inform rescue operations," they captioned the photographs, pictured below.
Satellogic says that "SpaceX’s frequent launch schedule will help Satellogic accomplish its goals to significantly grow its constellation." The company aims to launch additional satellites each quarter to achieve building a constellation of at least 200 Earth-observation satellites by 2025 to provide daily sub-meter resolution photos of the entire surface of Earth and be capable of capturing specific points-of-interest at least 40 times per day.
Featured Image Source: SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
