As smoke from hundreds of wildfires spread across Canada and the United States, the first three operational satellites in the Google-backed FireSat program were successfully launched into orbit. By the end of the year, satellites will begin providing wildfire detection in the US, Australia and Europe, capable of detecting even small fires.
The July 7, 2026, launch of microsatellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California marks the transition to “initial operational capability.” FireSat constellation managed by non-profit organization Earth Fire Alliance. After a three-month test period, the three satellites will begin actively reporting to fire agencies while covering every fire-prone region on Earth at least twice a day.
FireSat represents the first satellite constellation designed to detect wildfires, including detecting small fires that other satellites might miss. The satellites were developed by California-based satellite manufacturer Muon Space and have already been adopted $15 million from Google support initial placement. Other notable financial backers include Bezos Earth Foundation allocated funds in the amount of 26 million US dollars.
Each satellite is equipped with multispectral imagery that can see through smoke and clouds and detect fires as far as five by five meters (about 16 by 16 feet). This ability is a. proved by FireSat Protoflight satellite Launched in March 2025, it collected more than a million images, showing that it could also detect low-intensity flames invisible to existing satellites.
The future of forest fire detection
The “early adopter” organizations Among those to begin using FireSat data this year are fire agencies in California, Colorado, Australia and Portugal. As more satellites are launched, the FireSat program aims to provide the latest imagery anywhere in the world on an hourly basis by 2029. Once the full constellation of more than 50 satellites is launched in the early 2030s, such images will be available every 20 minutes.
