AI image processing aboard satellites in space has been a goal of the Earth observation industry for years. Now it has finally been achieved. Planet Labs, based in Calif., released an image captured by its Pelican-4 multispectral satellite showing an airport in Alice Springs, Australia. On the tarmac, more than a dozen aircraft are scattered, each highlighted in a neat green box, identified by an AI model running aboard the satellite. Planet Labs’ engineers had worked 18 months to accomplish reliable autonomous object classification from space. They hope the technology will put Earth observation on steroids, enabling autonomous tasking and real-time sharing of insights with users on Earth.

“The entire remote-sensing industry has been known to put exotic sensors in space,” said Kiruthika Devaraj, vice president of engineering at Planet Labs. “We have very good eyes in space looking at everything that’s going on. But then, we collect so much data and have to wait six to 12 hours to get the information out. So, you’re essentially looking at the past.” Planet Labs currently operates a constellation of several hundred Dove and SuperDove CubeSats, each only 30 centimeters long. These…