Planet Labs is a San Francisco-based company that makes adorable, shoebox-sized satellites, which they call doves. In February, Planet Labs grew their fleet of satellites to 71, orbiting the Earth and taking pictures (probably of you going to the bathroom.) They hope to increase that number to over one hundred satellites, beaming back information for both commercial and humanitarian uses.

These small satellite "doves" which orbit the planet in "flocks" can be used to track changes in the environment, help firefighters pinpoint wildfires, and according to Google, improve internet access.

“Our [business] model is based on our ability to mass-produce satellites. Instead of building a more sophisticated satellite with a 10-year lifetime, we chose to build a much simpler spacecraft with a design life of a couple of years and replenish the constellation.” Planet Labs chief technology officer Chris Boshuizen told Space News.

The satellite cubes/doves are launches from the International Space Station. We're not sure what happens when they die, but they probably becomes more space garbage floating around the Earth's orbit, like George Clooney's dying body in "Gravity."

We are planet labs from Planet Labs on Vimeo.

[h/t KPIX]