World’s First Agriculture-Focused Satellite Launches

Dan Agri-Business, Technology, This Land of Ours

agriculture
On Tuesday, January 3 at 9:56 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Transporter-6, SpaceX’s sixth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission mission, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the fifteenth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 stage booster, which previously supported launch of GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34 and 10 Starlink missions.
Falcon 9 carried 114 spacecraft to orbit that were set to deploy across 82 deployments, 78 of which have been confirmed. Teams are continuing to review data for the remaining payloads, though it may take customers some time to provide additional information on the status of their payloads.

The first of seven satellites for agriculture launched into space Tuesday by SpaceX. Built by Dragonfly Aerospace, the satellite is part of the Transporter-6 mission for customer EOS Data Analytics. The remaining six satellites of the constellation will be deployed over the next three years. The EOS Data Analytics project is the world’s first agriculture-focused satellite constellation providing the industry with high-quality data to support efficient and sustainable practices.

Images obtained from Dragonfly’s EOS SAT-1 will deliver information for harvest monitoring, application mapping, seasonal planning and assessments that analyze information such as soil moisture, yield prediction and biomass levels. The data will support growers with reducing carbon dioxide emissions and help them to develop sustainable agricultural methods.

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The company says the information will have important environmental benefits for the planet and help prevent natural habitats from being diminished for crop growth and maintain biodiversity.

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World’s First Agriculture-Focused Satellite Launches

Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.

Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.