Satellite

Satellite time-lapse chronicles nearly two years of Apple Park construction progress

Apple Park began construction in 2014. A new time-lapse video based on high-resolution photos by satellite imaging provider Planet Labs has condensed nearly two years of work on the main ring-shaped building in an 18-second time-lapse video. Uploaded Tuesday to Planet Labs' YouTube channel, the clip was shared yesterday by Business Insider.

Aside from the main ring-shaped building, the video also depicts construction progress on Apple's twin research and development buildings, the 1,000-seat Steve Jobs Theater, a wellness facility for employees and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCZZXOmC-J8

For those wondering, they used the high-resolution imaging SkySats constellation to capture the construction of Apple's new Cupertino campus.

If the Planet Labs name rings familiar to you, that's because Google recently sold its previously acquired satellite-imaging startup Skybox Imaging to Planet Labs.

The search giant acquired Skybox Imaging in 2014 for a reported $500 million.

That startup was founded by Michael Trela, who was a spacecraft engineer at John Hopkins University, and John Fenwick, who served in the U.S. Air Force. Both men joined Apple this April following Planet Labs' acquisition of Skybox from Google.

As part of the acquisition, Planet Labs now has seven satellites and plans to sell high-resolution aerial imagery starting next year.

Apple bought a firm that made a smart balloon platform for capturing impressive aerial imagery

The company best known for the iconic smartphone may be working on satellites, as per Bloomberg. This is cool, but here's something even cooler: back in 2015, Apple acquired a startup called Aether Industries LLC that specialized in “near-space technology.”

That's interesting because no one knew about this deal before Bloomberg's write-up today.

Among other technologies, Aether Industries developed high-altitude balloons used for capturing aerial images, anywhere on Earth, at up to ten times the resolution of the highest-resolution commercial mapping satellite in orbit today.

Apple may be funding Boeing’s satellite system for global broadband coverage

Today's report from Bloomberg on Apple's latest high-profile hirings includes a passage that sheds light on Boeing's alleged talks with Apple regarding a broadband satellite service. According to Boeing's regulatory filing, the aerospace giant is planning to blanket the Earth with more than a thousand satellites providing fast Internet coverage throughout the United States and internationally. According to authors Mark Gurman and Mark Bergen, Boeing has talked with Apple about investing in or partnering on the project.