transcript
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Planet builds a satellite in about 8 hours. At NASA, the same work took 8 years.
Will Marshall is Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Labs (NYSE: PL), which has built about 700 satellites in 15 years, more than any company except SpaceX, and runs the only fleet that images Earth’s entire landmass every day.
Marshall walks through Planet’s SF factory, from the garage whiteboard and the phone the founders launched on a suborbital rocket, to the clean room where Pelican-10 is being integrated, the shock, vibration, and thermal test stations, and the RF chamber.
The tour ends with a live demo of Planet’s AI interface querying 10 years of daily imagery, and a first look at the new Dove production floor.
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(00:00) Will Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO at Planet Labs
(00:48) 700 satellites for less than one NASA mission
(02:44) Why Planet Labs is really a data business
(03:45) How a satellite sees trees from 500 km away
(06:22) 4 million images of Earth, every day
(07:44) What a satellite goes through to reach orbit
(09:03) The $500 phone vs. the $1B satellite
(12:05) 1,000x more data than the first satellites
(14:47) Planet Labs' 48 ground stations that bring Earth’s data home
(16:44) Why every Planet Labs satellite is named after a bird
(18:19) A look inside Planet Labs’ sharpest satellite
(20:17) Why Planet Labs doesn’t make its own chips
(21:14) Building a satellite in 8 hours, not 8 years
(22:47) Why fleet size isn't what matters
(24:30) The engine that’s 10x more efficient in space
(25:29) Why the 100 million pieces of space junk is the real collision risk
(26:56) Spotting gas leaks from space
(27:40) Testing satellites to the breaking point
(32:19) What changed at Area 51 in five years?
(37:31) The room where satellite radios are tested
Will Marshall: https://x.com/Will4Planet
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea
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