Planet Labs has been awarded a $12.8 million contract by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide maritime data and analytics for regions across the Asia-Pacific. The announcement, made on October 16, falls under the agency’s Luno program. Planet will be responsible for delivering advanced analytics for maritime operations and reconnaissance, including vessel detections and monitoring.
The deal involves a partnership between Planet and SynMax Intelligence, a Houston-based geospatial analytics firm. They will fuse Planet’s near-daily imaging data with SynMax’s Theia analytics platform, an AI-driven tool that detects and classifies maritime events. According to a statement from Planet, “These insights are crucial for revealing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, illicit ship-to-ship transfers and vessel spoofing.”
This contract falls under Luno B, one component of NGA’s broader Luno program. The Luno program is a five-year, $490 million ceiling indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) vehicle that aims to accelerate the agency’s adoption of commercial satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics. Luno is split into two parts: Luno A, focused on commercial analytic services powered by machine learning and computer vision, and Luno B, which integrates commercial AI tools directly into NGA’s analytic workflows.
Planet joins a group of commercial intelligence vendors competing for Luno task orders, including Maxar Intelligence (renamed Vantor), BlackSky, Electromagnetic Systems, Ursa Space, and NV5 Geospatial. "This is our first win under this program as a prime," said Charlie Candy, Planet’s chief revenue officer, during an October 16 appearance at the company’s investor conference. He added that the NGA award emphasizes Planet’s growing focus on maritime domain awareness, a segment increasingly driven by national security demand.
"Our satellites capture over 25 million square kilometers of ocean imagery every day, and we’re expanding this capability," Candy said. "A projected growth in demand is primarily driven by national security needs." Planet’s constellation, consisting of approximately 140 imaging satellites, maps the entire Earth daily, creating a vast archive of data.
According to Candy, "We image over 200 million square kilometers of land, coastline, open water every day." He also noted that the company now holds a catalog of more than 3,000 images for every location on land. This extensive imagery collection fuels Planet’s AI training models, allowing the company to automate detection and monitoring tasks on a global scale. Planet operates over 50 ground stations and fully automated mission control centers for near real-time data downlink and processing.
For this Luno B task order, Planet is utilizing SynMax’s AI analytics to improve situational awareness at sea. SynMax specializes in combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence and other multi-source data for the energy and maritime industries. Their Theia analytics platform classifies vessel movements and detects "dark" ships that operate without broadcasting location signals, a growing concern for defense, trade security, and environmental regulators.
Planet and SynMax have collaborated before, initially partnering in 2022 to deliver energy intelligence and dark vessel monitoring for the energy and commodities sectors using PlanetScope imagery to track hydraulic fracturing and offshore operations. This alliance evolved into a formal strategic partnership in March 2024, enabling Planet to market SynMax’s Theia tool for vessel monitoring and spoofing detection as part of its commercial offerings.
Candy mentioned that Planet’s sales teams are primarily focused on government customers, while the company continues to collaborate with analytics partners like SynMax to serve commercial sectors such as insurance, energy, finance, and supply chain. The NGA contract indicates a closer relationship between commercial space data providers and U.S. intelligence agencies, which are increasingly relying on private-sector capabilities for global situational awareness.