"Where Do Satellite Images Come From?"

Omnivorous Analysis at Logic.io:

Satellite imagery has woven itself into the fabric of the internet. We recognize these crisp, high-definition, bird’s-eye-view images most commonly from Google Earth—but we employ them in much more besides: from reporting on stuck shipping containers to getting directions to a friend’s house, to tracking forest fires in real time and scrolling through real estate listings. Given their ever-widening range of commercial, consumer, and civic uses, it won’t surprise most people to hear that the industry that produces them (also known as Earth Observation, or EO) is growing at an exponential rate, and is only expected to expand further in the coming years.

Yet despite the prominence of satellite imagery in the geographical imagination of the internet, the imperatives of the industry are much less clear. The corporations that produce them are much less well known, and the military interests that back them remain as murky as ever. The highly visible commercial side of the industry is still deeply intertwined with its classified counterpart, and two companies, Maxar and Planet, have emerged to dominate the industry—supporting civilian functions with one hand, while supplying US defense needs with the other. 

Indeed, the ubiquity of commercial satellite imagery gives nearly anyone godlike powers of reconnaissance and surveillance not that far removed from those enjoyed by militaries and intelligence agencies—a fact that causes no small amount of anxiety within the Pentagon. The pervasiveness and power of their imagery compels us to ask: Where do they come from? And how are they being put to use?

Launching the Industry

The story of satellite imagery begins with military surveillance. The CORONA satellite program was launched in secret by the NRO (the National Reconnaissance Office, whose existence wasn’t declassified until the 1990s) in response to the USSR’s Sputnik-1 in 1958. CORONA ultimately put over 144 satellites into orbit over twelve years. Satellites were soon found to be useful for surveying purposes as well: the oil, gas, and mining industries, as well as climate researchers could make use of satellite imagery in their work. The academic, commercial, and national-security interest in satellite imagery of natural resources culminated in the launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, now called Landsat 1, in 1972. Landsat remains the longest-running satellite imagery program to date.

Following the end of the Cold War in 1992, private companies were permitted to enter the satellite business in the United States, kickstarting the industry that we know today. But the newfangled EO industry never drifted far from its origins in the military-industrial complex. In 1994, defense contractor Lockheed Martin was granted a license to sell commercial satellite high-resolution imagery. In 1995, the first commercial imaging satellite, OrbView-1, was launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation, in partnership with NASA. Soon afterwards, WorldView Imaging Corporation (later called DigitalGlobe) was given the first contract to build and operate a commercial satellite system. As the industry grew during the 2000s, it created new markets and many of the companies we know today. In 2004, Google acquired three geospatial companies that formed the basis for Google Maps. (One of them, Keyhole, had received funding from the CIA.) As the industry has expanded, the number of satellites orbiting the planet has grown: from one in 1958 to over 3,300 in 2020.

Despite the staggering number of satellites, the business of capturing satellite imagery is dominated by a small number of major players. DigitalGlobe and Orbital Sciences (by then called GeoEye) merged in 2013; the resulting corporation, Maxar Technologies, became the largest satellite imagery company in the United States—a monopoly, in effect. Planet, founded by ex-NASA scientists in 2010, initiated a new chapter for the industry, launching small-scale micro satellites that could capture imagery of the entire planet at least once a day. The miniature satellites themselves are called “doves,” ironic given their recently renewed contract with the NRO in late 2021. Planet, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange just weeks later in 2021, has been hailed as an industry disruptor for years. Maxar and Planet have emerged as twin giants of the industry: one supplies high resolution, the other, speed....

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