Planet Labs delivered its Pelican-12 Earth-observation satellite to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sept. 27, 2026, according to SatNews.
The spacecraft is scheduled for final processing, fueling and encapsulation before launching on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 dedicated mid-inclination rideshare mission. The report did not provide a launch date or a launch window date.
Pelican-12 is part of Planet Labs’ next-generation satellite effort and uses an upgraded bus intended to expand the company’s high-resolution imaging capacity. It also carries NVIDIA Jetson edge-computing hardware, which the company says can run automated computer-vision and artificial-intelligence models in orbit.
The satellite is designed to process imagery locally before transmitting data to the ground, including feature extraction and anomaly detection. It also has capacity for multispectral sensor assemblies and bi-directional links intended to route data between satellites.
Before liftoff, Pelican-12 will be integrated onto the Bandwagon-5 payload dispenser and undergo electrical and launch-interface checks. The mission is expected to place the spacecraft into a mid-inclination low Earth orbit.
