The first Google-backed Firesat Constellation satellite was successfully able to get into orbit in order over the weekend, promising to be a new era of wildfire detection and monitoring.
The constellations focus on wildfires. When fully operational, more than 50 satellites in the constellations can image almost any Earth’s surface once every 20 minutes. The early stage consists of only three satellites, revisiting all points around the world twice a day when operational in 2026.
The first satellite was built by Muon Space and was launched by the Vandenberg Space Force Base on SpaceX’s Transporter 13 mission on March 14th. The sensor suite consists of a six-band multispectral infrared camera tuned to detect wildfires from afar.
Most wildfire tracking today uses aerial photography via planes or low-resolution satellite images that are being reused for tasks. The former is expensive and limits the frequency of updates, while the latter suffers from low resolution and the lack of specialized sensors in wildfire detection.
Fireplace constellations are designed to solve both these problems. A 5-meter resolution image is generated and if the constellations are flying through the perfect complement, it provides firefighters with near-real-time updates on the location and behavior of the fire.
The constellations are a joint effort between Moon Space and the Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit supported by Google, Muon Space, The Environmental Defense Fund, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Mindeoo Foundation.