Planet recently announced an indefinite holdback on imagery over Iran and the broader Middle East conflict area. It started as a 96-hour delay. Then 14 days. Now it's indefinite, with no stated endpoint or conditions for restoration. Planet isn't Alone, with Vantor (formerly Maxar) and Blacksky likely restricting access in the same way. This isn't a policy adjustment, It's an accelerating enclosure of data access, happening at exactly the moment when the world most needs to u

The most powerful shift in space technology today is not the sensors, the rockets, or the constellations. It is a shift in values. For decades, satellite imagery has been shaped by a simple assumption: those with the greatest resources control the view from space. Governments and a small number of commercial actors have determined what is seen, who sees it, and how that information is used.

AI and the humans using AI are only as powerful as the data they learn from. Yet when it comes to understanding the real world, the disasters, conflicts, and daily conditions that shape people’s lives, today’s models are flying blind.

Imagine a world where a humanitarian satellite is fully operational - where every responder, researcher, and community advocate can access sub-meter, near-real-time imagery as easily as checking the weather.

What does it say about our world when we spend over $54 billion a year on defense and intelligence satellites to spy on each other - yet cannot dedicate even one satellite to saving lives?

FireSat is the first global satellite constellation purpose-built for wildfire detection and monitoring. Developed in close collaboration with the wildfire community, its design prioritizes fast, actionable, and openly licensed data. With a planned constellation of 50+ multispectral satellites capable of revisiting every point on Earth every 20 minutes or less, FireSat aims to deliver data in near real-time to end users such as first responders, incident commanders, and fire