Planet brings Pelican satellite manufacturing to Berlin

Planet plans to establish Pelican satellite manufacturing in Berlin, adding spacecraft production to its existing European operations.

Pelican is Planet's next-generation high-resolution Earth-observation platform. The spacecraft are intended to replenish and expand the company's high-resolution imaging capacity alongside its larger fleet of SuperDove satellites.

The Berlin operation will cover assembly and testing rather than only data processing. That brings optical payload electronics, flight computers, power systems, radios, attitude-control hardware and their associated qualification work into a European manufacturing programme.

European production route

Planet already has a substantial presence in Germany following its acquisition of RapidEye and later aerospace activities in Berlin. The new operation extends that footprint into serial satellite production.

A European line may support institutional customers that place requirements on security, supply-chain visibility, data sovereignty or regional manufacturing. It also creates a second production base for the Pelican programme rather than concentrating all assembly in the United States.

Satellite production requires more than final mechanical assembly. Electronics must be screened and tracked, avionics loaded with flight software and the completed spacecraft tested for functional, vibration, thermal-vacuum and communications performance before launch integration.

Planet has not yet published the intended annual output, the proportion of European-sourced components or the commissioning date for full-rate production in Berlin.

The company announced the expansion on 6 October 2026. Pelican spacecraft already form part of Planet's programme to provide higher-resolution imagery with more frequent revisits.