VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Cal. — Early Tuesday morning, the first of three FireSat satellites were launched into orbit at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. According to CAL FIRE, this marks the beginning of a new space-based wildfire detection system designed to help identify fires in real time. The FireSat program was built for one purpose, to find wildfires faster, no matter where they start.
CAL FIRE partnered with the Earth Fire Alliance to test and evaluate the early concepts that helped bring the vision for FireSat to life. The work continues on this project with partners worldwide, including Muon Space and Google. CAL FIRE says these first three satellites will now enter a commissioning and calibration phase with about three months of testing before the data starts flowing to fire agencies. Additional satellites will be launched. Once the full constellation of more than 50 satellites is in orbit, FireSat will be able to detect fires as small as five by five meters anywhere on the planet, providing updated observations every 20 minutes or less.
“Wildfires move fast. The sooner they’re detected, the sooner we can respond. FireSat is another step in giving firefighters across the globe early detection of fires and better information to help protect lives, communities, and natural resources,” explains CAL FIRE in a Facebook post announcing the launch.