In order to strengthen its position in space protection and intelligence, Japan’s Ground Ideal JSAT has made it known that it will work with Planet Labs of the US to create an Earth study satellite constellation. This represents yet another positive development for Japan’s integration with those of its supporters and its civilian-military dish business.
The largest dish communications company in Asia is run by Ground Great JSAT, a provider of satellite TV broadcasting solutions. It now has 17 spacecraft in geostationary orbit, providing both for government and commercial reasons with satellite protection from North America to the Indian Ocean.
Planet Labs designs, builds and operates the nation’s largest ships of Earth scanning satellites, providing data and related service to private business and government organizations. For the past decade, Blue Perfect has been selling Planet’s dish scanning products in Japan.
SKY Perfect intends to invest about US$ 230 million in the acquisition of 10 high-definition” Pelican” low earth orbit study satellites that Planet has built and launched. With the addition of earth stations, Sky Perfect is anticipated to have invested roughly$ 260 million overall in the project.
As per the contract, Planet may safe “certain ability on the satellites for the companion, in addition to providing administrative services”. Additionally, it intends to “leverage the expanded fleet’s increased capacity to support its own government and corporate customers around the world.”
This is a partnership that will add Blue Best to Planet’s worldwide earth observation satellite network rather than just a straightforward sale. It will be put into effect through JSAT Beyond Innovation LLC, an institution to become established through Ground Great JSAT’s 100%-owned US company, JSAT International.
Pelican is a series of high-resolution electro-optical spacecraft developed by Planet Labs. Each dish is 1.3 meters high, 0.79 feet wide and 1.15 feet long during release, 2.84 feet wide and 0.89 feet long in circle, and weighs 215 kilograms.
The newest design, Pelican-2, introduced in January, is equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson Edge AI software, which speeds up the control and transfer of information from hours to days. It was first launched in January from the Californian Vandenberg Space Force Base on a SpaceX spacecraft.
Beginning in the middle of 2026 or quick 2027, the satellites designed for Blue Perfect are expected to be launched. Every 90 hours or so, they will group the Earth, taking pictures with a quality apparently as good as 30 centimeters.
In addition to place security and intellect, the satellites will be able to track natural disasters, economic conditions, land use and other terrestrial features, providing valuable information for crisis and resource management, climate protection, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, insurance, and other legal government and business purposes.
Planet’s most extensive second contract to date is the contract with SKY Perfect, which is its third strategic partnership to date.
Earth began designing and building spacecraft and providing information analytics to track the presence of gas and CO2 in the environment in 2021 with the non-profit Carbon Mapper partnership. The University of Arizona, the California Air Resources Board, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory are additional partnership people.
In order to support NASA’s Communications Services Project ( CSP), Planet became a subcontractor to SES Space &, Defense and Telesat Government Solutions in 2022. The US and allies ‘ governments are served by those two businesses, which offer satellite communications systems.
For government-related projects like the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, CSP is working with business objectives to create new satellite communications systems.
Planet works with clients like the Argentine Federal Police and the Brazilian geographic technology firm SCCON in addition to the European Space Agency, German Space Agency, US Department of Defense, international defense, and other organizations.
Through the acquisition of SKY Perfect Communications and JSAT Corporation, Blue Great JSAT was established in 2007. Three years later, it rolled out BS SKY PerfecTV, a novel online radio satellite TV channel. In 2014, it went worldwide, broadcasting Chinese TV programs to consumers in Indonesia.
In the second half of the decade, Blue Perfect JSAT made a number of ties-ups with domestic and international businesses that made it the world’s leading provider of satellite press, contacts, and Earth observation services.
- 2016 – formed a business alliance with KSAT ( Kongsberg Satellite Services ), the Norwegian ground network operator, to introduce ground station services for low earth orbit satellites.
- 2017 – concluded a satellite picture research options reseller deal with Orbital Insight, a geographic analytics firm based in Palo Alto, California.
- To provide a satellite-based hazard reduction data company, 2020 established a business alliance with Chinese companies Zenrin and Nippon Koei.
- Beginning a small SAR ( synthetic aperture radar ) satellite business in 2021, 2021 collaborated with Japanese manufacturer and operator iQPS. With its constellation of 36 light-weight, low-cost satellites, iQPS can provide the Japanese Ministry of Defense and other clients with high-resolution images of almost any place on Earth within 10 minutes, day or night, regardless of weather.  ,
- established Space Compass, a joint venture with Japanese national telecommunications company NTT, to create a seamless satellite computing and communications network in the stratosphere and orbit around the earth.
- 2023 – SKY Perfect and KSAT entered into an agreement to provide JAXA ( Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ) with near-earth tracking and control services.
- To develop advanced satellite connectivity technology in Japan, 2023 collaborated with Project Kuiper, a low earth orbit satellite broadband network from Amazon, and NTT.
- 2024 – spun out Orbital Lasers to further the development of compact, high-powered satellite laser systems for space debris mitigation, detumbling of defunct satellites, and LiDAR-based remote sensing.
On January 1, 2025, SKY Perfect JSAT established a” Space National Security Business Group” consisting of sales, engineering and intelligence security divisions.
The group’s primary responsibility will be to locate foreign naval ships, military installations, and other matters of interest to the Japanese Defense Ministry. The Planet Labs-purchased low earth orbit observation satellites should contribute a lot to this effort.
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