Planet Labs will stop releasing images of Iran and the surrounding war zone, and it has no end date in mind. The California company told customers about the change by email on Saturday, April 4, Reuters reported.
The reason, according to the company: Washington asked every satellite imagery provider to hold back pictures of the conflict region for an indefinite period. Planet Labs will keep back anything dating to March 9. It expects the ban to last until the fighting ends.
This tightens an earlier step. Last month the firm put a 14-day delay on Middle East imagery, saying it wanted to keep adversaries from using the pictures to attack the U.S. and its allies.
What replaces open release
Planet told customers it was moving to a “managed distribution of images” judged not to put anyone at risk. Releases will be decided case by case, for urgent or mission-critical needs or when the public interest calls for it.
“These are extraordinary circumstances, and we are doing all we can to balance the needs of all our stakeholders,” the company said.
Planet runs a large fleet of Earth-imaging satellites and sells frequent updates to governments, companies and news organizations. It did not respond to Reuters’ request for further comment. The Pentagon said it does not comment on intelligence-related matters.
The war behind the order
The conflict began on February 28, when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. Tehran answered with strikes on Israel and on U.S. bases in Gulf states, among them Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, and the fighting spread across the region.
Satellite pictures have military uses such as finding targets, guiding weapons, tracking missiles and communications. Some space specialists say Iran may already be getting commercial imagery, including shots obtained through U.S. adversaries. Journalists and academics also rely on such images to study places that are hard to reach.
Other providers
Vantor, the former Maxar Technologies, told Reuters that Washington had not contacted it. A spokesperson said the company has long reserved the right to “implement enhanced access controls during times of geopolitical conflict,” and it has applied them to parts of the Middle East now.
Those controls can limit who may request new images or buy existing ones of areas where the U.S. military and its allies are “actively operating” and places “actively targeted by adversaries,” the spokesperson said. BlackSky Technology did not immediately answer Reuters’ request for comment.
