Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanks Elon Musk for SpaceX’s FireSat satellite

Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanked Elon Musk’s SpaceX for launching their first FireSat satellite over the weekend. FireSat is a satellite project by Google, built to detect and track wildfires before they start spreading.

Pichai posted an image of the satellite on the launch pad before takeoff on X saying, “We have liftoff! After a successful launch this weekend, the first FireSat satellite is now orbiting Earth. It’s the first of a 50+ satellite constellation that will help detect + track wildfires as small as 5x5 meters, using AI. Huge thanks to partners MuonSpace, EarthFireAll, MooreFound, and special thanks to SpaceX for the ride!”

Once the full constellation is live within the coming years, the satellites will be able to detect fire that’s just 5x5 meters, around the size of a classroom, within 20 minutes, per a Google blog post. 

As a part of their AI Collaboratives, FireSat was built in collaboration with Google Research, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, Muon Space and Earth Fire Alliance. The network analyses a satellite image of a location and then compares it with previous images taking into account other details including local weather and infrastructure to detect a fire. 

Google had first started wildfire response initiatives in 2020 which was used in Los Angeles earlier this year during the massive fires in California. The team said that AI had improved the technology vastly compared to traditional satellite imagery which wasn’t as precise.