Spire and Planet expand satellite fleets on Transporter 15 mission

by Simon Mansfield
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 28, 2025
Spire Global Inc and Planet Labs PBC have each reported new satellite deployments on SpaceXs Transporter 15 rideshare flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, expanding commercial constellations focused on Earth observation, weather, and radio frequency data.

Planet confirmed that its AI enabled high resolution Pelican 5 and Pelican 6 satellites reached orbit alongside 36 SuperDoves from Flock 4H and that commissioning of the two new Pelican spacecraft is underway following initial contact. Pelican 5 and Pelican 6 join the companys first generation Pelican fleet designed to deliver 40 centimeter class imagery across six multispectral bands tuned for cross sensor analysis and to support existing 50 centimeter products once in routine service, while the additional SuperDoves add capacity to the daily global PlanetScope monitoring mission. Planet plans further Pelican and SuperDove launches in 2026 with the next Pelican generation targeting resolutions of up to 30 centimeter class and continues to integrate onboard NVIDIA Jetson hardware for on orbit edge processing to shorten the time from imaging to customer ready data products.

Spire Global reported that the Transporter 15 manifest carried eleven Spire built satellites including spacecraft for its Space Services customers and three replenishment satellites that reinforce its operational dual use constellation for weather, maritime, aviation, and security applications. Two satellites for GHGSat launched on this mission carry methane monitoring payloads that extend GHGSats greenhouse gas emissions constellation and are intended to deliver frequent, independent, and precise measurements to industrial and government users concerned with tracking and reducing methane output. The company noted that it now designs and operates five satellites for GHGSat as part of a broader portfolio of environmental monitoring missions.

Four satellites on the same flight host Internet of Things payloads for Lacuna Space, pairing Spire satellite platforms with Lacunas latest generation hardware to expand a global IoT network serving sensors and mobile equipment in remote or under connected regions. Spire expects these satellites to support applications across agriculture, logistics, energy, environmental monitoring, and marine activities by providing low cost links for distributed devices.

Spire also added three satellites equipped with advanced Radio Occultation and Automatic Identification System instruments designed to supply atmospheric profiles and ship tracking data that feed weather and climate models and commercial intelligence services. Earlier in the month, the company launched a radio frequency geolocation satellite co funded through the LuxImpulse programme overseen by the Luxembourg Space Agency and implemented by the European Space Agency on SpaceXs Bandwagon 4 mission, further extending its RF and geolocation capability for government and commercial customers.