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 understand what's hap

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.