Satellite Update 2027: Latest Commercial Satellite News, Resolution and Investment

Satellite update, in short: commercial Earth observation is moving fast. Six WorldView Legion satellites now collect more than 3.5 million km² of 30 cm class imagery a day, 25 cm native optical imagery is on sale from SpaceEye-T, and 20 cm class satellites from Vantor and Airbus are booked for 2028 and 2029. ICEYE raised more than €1 billion in June 2026, Pixxel closed a $100 million round, India signed a ₹1,200 crore private Earth observation constellation, and NASA started releasing free NISAR radar data. This page collects the verified commercial news (no military or conflict news) and what it means for 2027.

This satellite update is written for the people who buy and use imagery: GIS teams, engineers, insurers, farmers, miners, planners and analysts. Every figure below comes from a company filing, a space agency, a government release or a named trade publication, and we left out anything we could not confirm. Where sources disagree, we say so. We will update this page as new launches and contracts are confirmed.

Satellite Update 2027: Key Numbers at a Glance

Here is the quick update for anyone who needs the headline figures before reading the detail.

High Resolution Satellite Imagery: 30 cm, 25 cm and 20 cm

Resolution is the biggest commercial satellite update of the last two years. Five years ago, 30 cm was a rare premium product. Today it is the working standard for engineering, real estate and urban mapping, and the race has moved to 25 cm and 20 cm.

30 cm Is Now the Commercial Standard

Vantor (the former Maxar Intelligence) completed its six-satellite WorldView Legion fleet with launches in May 2024, August 2024 and February 2025. Vantor says Legion can collect more than 3.5 million km² of 30 cm class imagery every day and revisit a single location up to 15 times a day. In April 2026, a Vantor engineering update said Legion imagery now meets Landsat-class radiometric accuracy, within ±5% of global benchmarks, which matters for change detection and vegetation indices. In January 2026, NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program also added Legion imagery to its Satellite Data Explorer for approved researchers.

Airbus and the French space agency CNES also extended the original Pléiades mission to the end of 2028, so the 50 cm Pléiades archive keeps growing alongside the 30 cm Pléiades Neo fleet. If you need 30 cm imagery for a project today, see our 30 cm satellite imagery page for coverage, archive and new tasking options.

30 cm satellite imagery of Las Vegas: at this resolution, individual vehicles, lane markings and rooftop equipment are clear.

25 cm Optical Imagery Is Available Now

The sharpest native optical imagery on general commercial sale is 25 cm. SI Imaging Services (SIIS) of South Korea now sells 25 cm panchromatic and 1 m four-band multispectral imagery from SpaceEye-T, and distributors including Pacific Geomatics and Geoimage announced access in 2026. XRTech Group supplies 25 cm satellite imagery for sites where 30 cm is not quite enough, such as asset inventories and traffic studies.

20 cm Class Satellites Are Booked

Two big programs confirm that 20 cm is the next step for commercial imagery:

• Airbus Pléiades Neo Next: Airbus said in January 2026 that the first satellite will launch in early 2028 on a Vega C rocket from Kourou, with 20 cm class native resolution and the same data formats as Pléiades Neo.
• Vantor Vantage: announced in April 2026 as a 20 cm class line, with two satellites expected to start collecting imagery in 2029. BAE Systems was selected to build them in June 2026.
• Vantor Pulse: a 40 cm class fleet designed to revisit the same place about every 15 minutes. EnduroSat (satellite buses) and CACI (optical payloads) were selected in September 2026, and the first Pulse satellites could come online as soon as 2027.

At the very low end of orbit, Albedo's Clarity-1 tested 10 cm class imaging from very low Earth orbit (VLEO). Albedo lost contact with the satellite about nine months into the mission, but says the flight validated 98% of the technology needed for 10 cm imagery. The company has since shifted to building VLEO satellite buses for other operators, with its next mission, Vicinity, planned for 2027.

The French CO3D mission, launched in July 2025, is worth a separate mention: its four satellites work in pairs to capture 50 cm imagery and stereo pairs for 3D surface models. For elevation work, see our stereo satellite imagery and DEM services pages.

SAR and InSAR Satellite Update: Radar Is Growing Fastest

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sees through cloud and works at night, which is why industry reviews in 2026 describe it as the fastest-growing sensor type in Earth observation. Here is the radar update that matters for commercial users.

Commercial SAR Constellations

• ICEYE: launched six SAR satellites on SpaceX Transporter-16 on 30 March 2026 and four more on Transporter-17 on 7 July 2026. ICEYE says it plans to launch 25 satellites in 2026 and more than 50 in 2027, and targets production capacity of 100 satellites a year by 2028. In October 2026 it teamed up with OroraTech to pair thermal wildfire detection with radar damage mapping.
• Synspective (Japan): Rocket Lab placed the 13th StriX radar satellite in a 559 km orbit on 26 September 2026. Synspective is building toward a 30-satellite constellation.
• Umbra: has publicly shown 16 cm SAR imagery, still one of the sharpest commercial radar images released.
• China Siwei: added two more SuperView Neo-2 radar satellites in March 2026 (details in the provider section below).

InSAR: Free Data and Better Ground Motion Maps

InSAR (interferometric SAR) compares radar images over time to measure ground movement down to millimetres. The biggest InSAR update is NISAR, the joint NASA and ISRO mission launched in July 2025. Its first public L-band science data release began on 20 July 2026, covering observations from 17 June 2026 onward, and all NISAR L-band products are free through NASA Earthdata and the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF). NASA expects the complete science record to be available by the end of 2026.

In Europe, Sentinel-1C (launched December 2024) and Sentinel-1D (launched 4 November 2025) restore the full two-satellite Sentinel-1 radar pair. The Copernicus European Ground Motion Service (EGMS), which maps ground motion across Europe from Sentinel-1, has published research on a full decade of observations and has further yearly windows commissioned through 2027. Learn the difference between the two methods in our guide to SAR vs InSAR, or order SAR satellite imagery for your site.

Hyperspectral and Thermal Imaging Update

Hyperspectral sensors split light into hundreds of narrow bands, so they can tell minerals, crop stress, plastics and gas plumes apart. Thermal sensors measure heat. Both moved from experiments to commercial products in 2026.

• Pixxel (India): operates six Firefly hyperspectral satellites, launched in January and August 2025, with 135 bands from 470 to 900 nm at 5 m class resolution. In September 2026, Pixxel raised $100 million in a Series C co-led by Temasek and Seraphim, taking total funding to $195 million, India's largest space-tech round. Its first Honeybee satellite, which adds shortwave infrared, is now expected in 2027.
• Planet Tanager: Tanager-1 carries more than 400 bands from 400 to 2,500 nm at about 30 m and has helped Carbon Mapper detect thousands of methane and CO2 plumes. Tanager-2 launched on SpaceX Transporter-18 on 1 October 2026, a mission that carried 130 payloads.
• Wyvern (Canada): Dragonette satellites deliver 5.3 m hyperspectral imagery in 23 or 31 visible to near-infrared bands.
• GHGSat: launched two more methane-monitoring satellites on Transporter-18.
• SatVu (UK): HotSat-3, a 3.5 m mid-wave infrared thermal satellite, also launched on Transporter-18 and will double SatVu's thermal capacity after commissioning. HotSat-2 began commercial operations in June 2026.

For mineral exploration, agriculture and environmental work, see our hyperspectral satellite imagery page.

Siwei SuperView, Beijing-3, TripleSat and Wyvern: Provider News

Many commercial buyers use these four constellations alongside the Western fleets. Here is what changed recently for each one.

China Siwei SuperView Neo

China Siwei, the commercial imaging company within the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), keeps adding satellites to its SuperView Neo (Siwei Gaojing) fleet:

• SuperView Neo-1 03 and 04: launched on a Long March 2C on 27 February 2025. China's state assets regulator (SASAC) described them as China's highest spatial resolution commercial remote sensing satellites. XRTech Group supplies SuperView Neo-1 03 and 04 imagery.
• SuperView Neo-3 02: launched on 15 March 2025 from Jiuquan on a Long March 2D. The Neo-3 series is built for wide-area mapping, with a swath of about 130 km at 0.5 m resolution reported for this satellite. See our SuperView Neo-3 50 cm imagery page.
• SuperView Neo-2 05 and 06: launched on 26 March 2026 (Beijing time) from Taiyuan on a Long March 2D. These are radar satellites with better than 1 m resolution that image day and night in any weather. CASC says they now fly with Neo-2 03 and 04 as a four-satellite, two-group network, which doubles radar data collection and halves the revisit time.

Industry reporting puts the long-term SuperView plan at 28 satellites across optical, radar and wide-swath lines.

Beijing-3 (21AT)

Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology (21AT) runs the Beijing series of optical satellites. Beijing-3A (50 cm) launched in June 2021, the 30 cm class Beijing-3N (formerly Beijing-3B) launched on 24 August 2022, and four Beijing-3C satellites (0.5 m panchromatic, 2 m multispectral) launched on 20 May 2024. In March 2026, the China Society of Surveying and Mapping featured Beijing-3 real-scene 3D products, including a 3D model of Mount Everest that can be viewed through 360 degrees, which shows how stereo collections from this fleet are now sold as ready 3D data. We did not find a confirmed new Beijing-3 launch in 2026.

TripleSat (DMC3)

TripleSat is a constellation of three satellites built by Surrey Satellite Technology and operated for 21AT. They launched together in July 2015 into a 651 km orbit and can image any point on Earth at least once a day, with 80 cm to 1 m class resolution. Airbus also signed an agreement to distribute TripleSat imagery, which widens access to its large archive. TripleSat remains a cost-effective option for wide-area mapping where 30 cm is not needed; see our 80 cm satellite imagery page.

Wyvern Dragonette

Wyvern, based in Edmonton, Canada, operates the Dragonette hyperspectral satellites at about 5 m resolution with up to 31 visible to near-infrared bands. Dragonette-004 launched on SpaceX Transporter-13 in March 2025 and Dragonette-005 on Transporter-15 in November 2025, and Wyvern lists Dragonette-006 for 2026. In March 2026, NordSpace launched a new venture investment arm with a strategic investment in Wyvern, and data partnerships with Geoimage (Australia) and Geopera have widened access to Wyvern imagery.

Satellite Industry Investment: Where the Money Is Going

Money is the clearest signal in any industry update. These are the verified commercial figures from 2026:

Planet's growth also includes civil government programs, such as the national satellite data program it launched with the Government of Rwanda. Satellogic says the first launch of its Merlin constellation is on track for the fourth quarter of 2026, with full operation in the first half of 2027. On the market side, Novaspace forecasts that Earth observation data and services will pass $8 billion by 2033, and counts 5,770 Earth observation satellites set to launch by 2034. Market size estimates differ widely between research firms because each one defines the market differently, so treat any single figure with care.

India Satellite Update: Crores Flowing Into Earth Observation

India is the most active new commercial market in this update. In the first Earth observation public-private partnership (EO-PPP), IN-SPACe chose Allied Orbits, a consortium led by PixxelSpace India with Piersight Space, SatSure Analytics India and Dhruva Space. The consortium will invest more than ₹1,200 crore to design, build, own and operate 12 satellites carrying optical, hyperspectral and radar sensors, with initial launches expected from 2027 and full operation by 2029. A government reply in Parliament in August 2026 confirmed the project as approved.

The Union Budget 2026-27 gave the Department of Space ₹13,705.63 crore, about 2% above the previous budget estimate. The ₹1,000 crore IN-SPACe venture fund, managed by SIDBI Venture Capital, plans to invest ₹10 crore to ₹60 crore per company in launch, satellite, Earth observation and downstream startups. One setback to note: ISRO's PSLV-C62 mission carrying the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite on 12 January 2026 did not reach its intended orbit after a third-stage problem. For Indian projects, see our satellite images of India page.

Free Satellite Data Update: NISAR, Copernicus and Landsat

• NISAR: free L-band radar data since July 2026, with the full first-year record due by the end of 2026.
• Sentinel-6B: launched in November 2025, it has entered service to continue the sea-level record.
• Sentinel-1D: launched November 2025 to complete the Sentinel-1 radar pair.
• CO2M: the Copernicus carbon dioxide mission is targeted to begin launching in 2027, although published dates still differ between sources.
• Landsat Next: the program was restructured in the US budget process. Congress has backed a three-satellite design with a launch target by the end of 2031, but the final plan was still pending in early 2026.

Free data is excellent for wide-area trends, but its 10 m to 30 m pixels cannot show individual buildings or vehicles. That is where commercial imagery comes in. Our archive vs new tasking guide explains when each option makes sense.

Satellite Internet Update: Starlink and Amazon Leo

Connectivity is not imagery, but it changes how fast field teams can receive large image files. SpaceX's May 2026 IPO filing reported 10.3 million Starlink subscribers across 164 countries and markets as of 31 March 2026, up from 4.4 million in 2024. Amazon's Leo network (formerly Project Kuiper) had 396 satellites in orbit by early July 2026, out of about 3,236 planned, opened beta access to enterprise customers, and plans to complete the constellation by 2029.

GIS and AI: How Satellite Imagery Is Being Analysed

The software side moved just as fast. At Google Cloud Next in April 2026, Google announced Aerial and Satellite Insights for analysing imagery stored in BigQuery, plus two experimental Earth AI imagery models that find objects such as bridges, roads and power lines. Esri's February 2026 ArcGIS Online imagery update added support for hyperspectral rasters, and version 5.0 of the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript added an AI assistant component in beta. For buyers, this software update means analysis-ready imagery, delivered as GeoTIFFs with clean metadata, is worth more than ever because it can go straight into these tools.

What to Watch in 2027

We will update this table each time a launch is confirmed or a date moves.

What This Satellite Update Means for Your Industry

Read more in our industry guides for construction, oil and gas, agriculture and environmental monitoring.

How to Get the Latest Satellite Imagery for Your Site

You do not need to follow every launch to benefit from it. With XRTech Group you can search the archive for any location, preview sample imagery and see an instant price on our portal, without creating an account. If the archive is too old, we task a satellite for a new collection. We supply 25 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50 cm and 80 cm optical imagery, plus SAR, InSAR, hyperspectral, stereo and DEM products, delivered ready for GIS. For monitoring, you can order a fresh update of your area of interest on a regular schedule.

The XRTech Group portal: draw an area of interest, then choose archive imagery or new tasking and see the price.

Compare prices on our satellite imagery pricing page, or learn how satellite tasking works.

Satellite News FAQs

How We Checked These Facts

We built this update from primary and named sources only: company filings and press releases, space agency notices (NASA, ESA, CNES, ISRO, IN-SPACe), Indian government budget documents and replies in Parliament, and trade publications. Where sources gave different dates or figures, we used the most recent official figure or said that the sources differ. We left out military, defence and conflict news, unconfirmed rumours and figures we could not check against a second source. Facts were checked in early November 2026.

Sources

• NASA Earthdata and Alaska Satellite Facility: NISAR L-band data now publicly available
• NASA CSDA: Vantor archive imagery added to Satellite Data Explorer
• ESA: Copernicus Sentinel-1D and Sentinel-6B mission notices
• Copernicus Land Monitoring Service: European Ground Motion Service
• CNES: Airbus and CNES continue the Pléiades mission to end 2028
• Aviation Week: Vantor to provide 20 cm and 40 cm imaging via new satellite lines
• Payload: Vantor selects EnduroSat and CACI for Pulse
• Reuters: Finland's ICEYE valued at $12 billion in funding round
• Janes: ICEYE launches six new SAR satellites
• Rocket Lab: StriX mission launch releases
• China Great Wall Industry Corporation: SuperView Neo-2 05 and 06 launch; SuperView Neo 3-02 launch
• Xinhua and CASC: China launches SuperView Neo-2 05 and 06 satellites
• SASAC: Long March 2C launches SuperView Neo-1 03 and 04
• China Society of Surveying and Mapping: Beijing-3 real-scene 3D products
• eoPortal: Beijing-3 mission
• SpaceNews: China launches four high-resolution remote sensing satellites (Beijing-3C)
• SpaceNews: 21AT announces in-orbit images from the TripleSat constellation
• GIM International: NordSpace Ventures launches with strategic investment in hyperspectral imaging firm Wyvern
• Geoimage: Geoimage and Wyvern partnership
• Reuters and Deccan Herald: Pixxel raises $100 million Series C
• Business Standard: Pixxel-led consortium signs India's first private national EO constellation
• Press Information Bureau: Parliament reply on EO public-private partnership
• Business Today: Union Budget 2026, Department of Space gets Rs 13,705 crore
• ISRO: Union Cabinet approves Rs 1,000 crore venture capital fund for space sector
• ThePrint: PSLV-C62 mission outcome
• U.S. SEC: Planet Labs PBC Form 8-K, fiscal Q2 2027 results
• SatNews: Satellogic reaches first positive quarterly operating income
• Carbon Mapper: Tanager-1, two years of turning satellite data into methane action
• Via Satellite: first mission milestones on SpaceX Transporter-18
• IT Brief UK: SatVu launches HotSat-3
• Albedo: Clarity-1, what worked and where we go next
• Via Satellite: SpaceX IPO filing gives first look at company financials
• Advanced Television: Amazon Leo launch coverage
• TechCrunch: Google Maps is about to get a big dose of AI
• Novaspace: Earth Observation Data and Services Market report
• USGS: Landsat Next