Rendering of a Pelican satellite. Photo: Planet Labs

SKY Perfect JSAT is entering the Earth Observation (EO) market in a big way. Sky Perfect JSAT is Planet‘s previously unnamed partner investing $230 million for its own Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation of Pelican satellites.

The company announced Wednesday that it will enter the EO satellite business through JSAT Beyond Innovation LLC, a soon-to-be established entity through SKY Perfect JSAT’s U.S. subsidiary, JSAT International Inc.

Planet revealed details of the constellation last week. Planet will develop and launch the constellation of new Pelican high resolution satellites for SKY Perfect JSAT. Furthermore, Planet will leverage the increased capacity of the expanded fleet to serve its own government and commercial customers around the world. This mark’s Planet’s largest contract to date.

SKY Perfect JSAT expects this new constellation to strengthen its position in the growing defense and intelligence market. Additionally, this constellation will allow them to meet market demands including in disaster prevention and mitigation. Furthermore, SKY Perfect JSAT will leverage its advanced data analysis capabilities to develop new markets.

This marks a deeper relationship for the two companies which have been collaborating for more than 10 years, primarily in the sale of Planet’s observation satellite data within Japan. Through this agreement, SKY Perfect JSAT and Planet will further strengthen their partnership by leveraging Planet’s satellite development, manufacturing, and operational capabilities enabling the partners to maximize synergies between the two companies.

Pelican is Planet’s next-generation high-resolution satellite that enables continuity and enhancements over the SkySat fleet, including image quality, spectral bands, imaging capacity, and latency. The $230 million in commercial payments will be recognized as revenue over approximately seven years.