If anyone is curious it seems at minimum to cost $20, which is a lot cheaper than I expected.

For existing images. Same details as Google maps (1m)

Someone charging for images of the stars when the public probably funded the equipment used is just pure add-a-middle-man economics, isn't it?

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They're sourcing the images from private imagery sources like Planet and Maxar. Images from publically funded satellites like Landsat and Copernicus are already freely available for download. It would be nice if Planet and Maxar made it easier for people to buy their images directly but this seems like an okay solution for now.

So two companies have inserted themselves into this process as middlemen marketing something which really ought to be freely available to everyone.

Thanks for clarifying how useless these two companies truly are. 🤙

They paid for their own satellite that took the image?

Did they?

Maxar Technologies seems to be a company dedicated to "Integrated space infrastructure and Earth intelligence capabilities that make global change visible, information actionable and space accessible." - basically, selling the data satellites already have.

Plant says "Planet revolutionized the earth observation industry with the highest frequency satellite data commercially available."

When companies make claims about their "data management projects", they aren't constructing satellites - they're marketing the information that's obtained by 'em.

So, we come back to your question: Did they pay for their own satellites?

Yes they did. Maxar and Planet both privately develop, build, and operate their own constellations of satellites. Maxar's satellites are called WorldView, Planet's are called Dove. All are privately funded and operated.

Excellent. Thank you for clarifying our misunderstanding.

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