Curious Planeteer working to make the Earth's changes visible, accessible and actionable.

We’ve said it before: space is hard.

Today, the unmanned Falcon 9 launch vehicle experienced an anomaly during its ascent, breaking up two minutes into flight. All eight of our Dove satellites (Flock 1f) on board the Dragon spacecraft were lost. Thankfully, no injuries were reported on the ground.

Our sympathies are extended to SpaceX and the space sector more broadly; over 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of supplies bound for the ISS, and thirty student experiments were also on board the Dragon Spacecraft. This was the nineteenth overall flight for the Falcon 9 rocket, and SpaceX’s first-ever commercial launch failure.

This is a hard day for Planet Labs but we’ve experienced a launch failure before, and statistically, we will again. With a quarterly launch schedule across a network of international partners, and a highly talented and dedicated team, we will reach our goal of imaging the entire Earth, every day.

To all our peers in the space sector…ad astra!

For information as it develops, watch SpaceX’s webcast.