Planet is excited to announce that 16 Dove satellites – Flock 3r – are scheduled to fly on ISRO’s PSLV launch vehicle this fall. Planet’s 16 Doves will ride as secondary payloads.

This Flock is being sent to a 500 km altitude Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). SSO’s regular mid-morning crossing times provide consistent lighting conditions (sun angle and shadows) that make it easier for humans and algorithms to detect changes in our imagery.

This is especially valuable as we narrow our focus on what’s next for Planet – applying machine learning algorithms to our daily global imagery to create valuable information feeds that detect and classify objects, identify geographic features, and monitor change over time.

The Flock 3r launch is part of Planet’s regular maintenance of its in-orbit constellation. The 16 Dove satellites will join Planet’s 100+ actively imaging fleet of Doves, along with the RapidEye and SkySat fleets, providing unparalleled Earth observation coverage and revisit rates.

We’re thrilled to be back in India launching on the PSLV rocket. We will have more information on the flight of Flock 3r as the launch window nears. Follow us @planetlabs for updates!