Planet opens Berlin factory, scaling to 60 satellites a year
What happened
Planet Labs opened a new satellite manufacturing facility in Berlin on 22 September, with Germany's federal economics minister on site for the opening. The 5,700-square-metre plant will build Planet's 300kg-class Pelican imaging satellites, starting production this autumn and scaling to 60 a year, with the first satellite due before year-end. The facility adds about 70 jobs to Planet's existing 150-person Berlin office and follows a German government contract, disclosed in July, for dedicated Pelican imaging capacity over Europe.
Read-across for SES
SES does not compete in Earth observation, but the government logic on display is the same one SES sells: pay for sovereign-controlled infrastructure, not shared capacity. A second EO operator building in-country in Europe, after ICEYE's German deal, shows governments will fund local manufacture, not just local operation. That is the same argument behind SES's own in-country IRIS² factory, opening 2028.
As the brief filed it
[AGE: ~6h] Planet opened its first European satellite factory, in Berlin, built to produce 60 Pelican imaging satellites a year. It is a second sovereign-manufacture win for Earth observation after ICEYE's German build, sharpening SES's own case for building locally.