Planet Labs Raises $52 Million to Map the Earth With Small Satellites

NASA may be devoting more attention to asteroids these days, but a group of former employees of the agency are focusing on something a little closer to home.

Planet Labs, a San Francisco startup founded by three former NASA physicists, announced Wednesday that it has raised $52 million in a Series B round of funding to launch of a bunch of imaging satellites into orbit and map the earth

Since its founding in 2010, the Planet Labs team has worked to develop small satellites called "Doves" that are launched into low orbit to measure the planet's environmental changes in high resolution. That data is updated frequently and provided to paying clients. Planet Labs launched four satellites into orbit this year and plans to launch another two dozen in the immediate future. Read more...