# Planet Labs Earth-imaging company founded 2010 by ex-NASA Ames scientists Will Marshall, Robbie Schingler, and Chris Boshuizen on a "daily scan of the whole planet" thesis — hundreds of shoebox-sized Dove satellites, plus higher-resolution SkySats and the next-generation Pelican fleet. Went public via SPAC in December 2021 as a public benefit corporation (NYSE: PL). The arc that matters here is the pivot from agriculture-and-climate idealism to defense revenue. FY2026 (reported March 2026) was Planet's first full year of adjusted-EBITDA profitability, on a backlog up 79% to ~$900M — driven by a NATO persistent-surveillance deal (June 2025), a "low nine-figure" Swedish Armed Forces contract, [[NGA]] maritime-domain awards, and its share of the [[NRO]]'s EOCL program alongside [[Vantor]] and BlackSky. Its imagery documented the war in Ukraine for years; in March 2026 it imposed shutter-control delays (96 hours, later two weeks) on public imagery of Iran and Gulf conflict zones while military users retained instant access — a clean illustration of who commercial "transparency" ultimately serves. Dual-use tension is the throughline: the same constellation sold as planetary stewardship is now a node in the [[Defense Tech Ecosystem]]'s surveillance layer, subject to the same Trump-era NRO commercial-budget fights as its rivals. ## See Also - [[Vantor]] · [[NRO]] · [[NGA]] - [[Commercial Space Sector]] — sector context · [[Defense Tech Ecosystem]]