SAN FRANCISCO, CA — June 17, 2026 — Earth Fire Alliance (EFA) today announced a $26 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in support of the FireSat program — a satellite constellation that will generate an unprecedented, near real-time global dataset on wildfire and its effects on the planet and our communities. The grant, the largest single philanthropic commitment to wildfire detection to date, will fund the launch and operations of the first three operational FireSat satellites set to go into orbit in Q3 2026, and includes dedicated support for on-the-ground adoption and use of FireSat data by fire agencies, land managers, and communities in the Amazon Basin, one of the most fire-vulnerable regions on Earth.

The Bezos Earth Fund commitment brings EFA’s total funding to $69.2M to date, reflecting a growing coalition of mission-aligned supporters that also includes $15.5M in funding from Google.org, $12.5M from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, and $15.2M from additional, anonymous, and individual supporters.

The FireSat protoflight, which launched in March 2025, is already collecting sample data and demonstrating the powerful impact FireSat will have on communities worldwide. By the end of 2026, FireSat’s first operational satellites will provide wildfire monitoring at least twice daily over the world’s more fire-prone geographies, including a near-term focus on the Amazon Basin.

By 2029, the growing FireSat constellation will detect fires as small as 5×5 meters—roughly the size of a standard shipping container—anywhere on the planet within 1 hour, enabling earlier intervention when necessary to prevent large, catastrophic fires. Once fully operational in the early 2030s with approximately 50 satellites, FireSat will monitor every point on Earth every 20 minutes or less. With this unprecedented capability to detect small fires in near real-time, there is vast potential to protect homes, communities, and biodiversity while also reducing carbon emissions from wildfires by an estimated 5–10% annually.

Early wildfire detection is among the highest-leverage interventions available. Developed for EFA by space systems company Muon Space, FireSat represents a fundamental leap in how the world detects, responds to, and understands wildfires. These advanced infrared satellites can detect small, cool fires within minutes of ignition and deliver high-resolution data to fire agencies and scientists in near real time.

“At the Bezos Earth Fund, we’re focused on supporting innovation that helps solve some of the hardest challenges in climate and nature, and breakthrough technology that addresses the challenges with uncontrolled wildfires is an important area that our funding can help move forward, faster,” said Tom Taylor, Bezos Earth Fund President and CEO. “Advancing detection and prevention technologies such as FireSat have incredible potential to better protect homes and communities, preserve forests and biodiversity, and reduce emissions, and we’re excited to be working together on these areas.”

EFA operates on a public-private-philanthropic partnership, or “P4” model, uniting commercial innovation, end-user co-development, and philanthropic and government investment around a shared goal: collecting and delivering critical wildfire data to every corner of the globe. Radical collaboration across sectors is one of the nonprofit’s core operating principles and was fundamental to the development of FireSat.

“The Bezos Earth Fund’s commitment to Earth Fire Alliance and the FireSat program sends an unmistakable signal,” said EFA Executive Director Brian Collins. “With the support of global, high-impact organizations like Bezos Earth Fund—alongside Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, other funders, and the wildfire community that helped shape this technology—Earth Fire Alliance and FireSat will bring critical new tools to firefighters, scientists, and policymakers in their efforts to strengthen wildfire resilience. The combined expertise, resources, and credibility of EFA’s growing, global coalition helps us not only build and launch innovative technology but also ensures our mission doesn’t end in orbit, and that this unprecedented data will reach the firefighters, land managers, and communities who need it most.”

Fire agencies and scientific organizations worldwide helped shape FireSat’s design and have already committed to use its data, partnering with EFA through its Early Adopter program. Their participation reflects the urgent, practical demand for faster, more reliable fire data on the ground. In addition to agencies and organizations in the Amazon region, FireSat Early Adopters include leading fire organizations in California, Colorado, Oregon, Texas, Africa, Australia, and Portugal.

As the FireSat constellation grows, EFA is building additional programs to ensure its data is globally accessible and actionable. FireConnect will work with communities, firefighters, land managers, and researchers globally to connect wildfire data to on-the-ground decision-making. FireImpact will translate FireSat’s global dataset and EFA’s growing partner network into actionable scientific knowledge, informing fire management strategies that minimize devastating impacts while preserving fire’s essential role in healthy ecosystems.

About Earth Fire Alliance

Earth Fire Alliance (EFA) is a global nonprofit coalition building the technological infrastructure the world needs to detect, monitor, and understand fire — and delivering critical data to the firefighters, scientists, and communities who need it most. EFA’s flagship program, FireSat, is the first satellite constellation designed specifically to address the wildfire challenge: generating an unprecedented dataset on fire and its effects on people and the planet. EFA partners with operational agencies, scientists, and technologists across continents to make fire data globally accessible, actionable, and available for the public good. 

EFA Media Contact: Kristin Q. Cody, press@earthfirealliance.org

About the Bezos Earth Fund

The Bezos Earth Fund, guided by the belief that Earth is the best planet in this solar system, works to protect and restore the natural world. Working with partners around the globe, we are developing innovative solutions to ensure the planet remains a place we can — and want to — live on. Based in the United States, the organization is led by CEO Tom Taylor, under the direction of Chairman Jeff Bezos and Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez Bezos. To learn more, visit: bezosearthfund.org

Source: Earth Fire Alliance

SNC and Muon Space Launch Three Vindlér® 2.0 Satellites to Power Expedited RF Data & Analytics

All three satellites have been confirmed healthy and are undergoing commissioning, marking the operational debut of SNC’s Vindlér 2.0 constellation.

SNC, the global aerospace and national security company, and Muon Space, the Mission Foundry for high-performance satellite constellations, announce the successful launch and initial contact with three next-generation Vindlér satellites. All three satellites have been confirmed healthy and are undergoing commissioning, marking the operational debut of SNC’s Vindlér 2.0 constellation, powering unprecedented commercial radio frequency (RF) data collection and analytics services. 

Vindlér detects and geo-locates targeted RF emissions, enabling operators to identify and track items of interest for enhanced situational awareness and decision making in complex environments. The technology is specifically designed to address a growing national security and commercial need for timely, precise RF data. 

SNC partnered with Muon Space to launch three satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on SpaceX’s Transporter-16 rideshare mission. Muon Space is an end-to-end space systems provider that designs, builds and operates mission-optimized, low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. SNC’s RF technology, diverse data sets and analytic capabilities, coupled with Muon’s scalable design, instrument development and operations support, will bring to life a new level of commercial possibilities with an emphasis on low-latency delivery and prioritizing immediate intelligence dissemination.

“With the launch of Vindlér 2.0, we are fundamentally reshaping the commercial RF market,” said Charlie Howell, vice president of programs at SNC. “This constellation delivers a level of precision and data richness that legacy systems simply can’t match. By pairing SNC’s decades of RF and ISR experience with on-orbit processing and low-latency delivery, we’re giving operators information they can act on at the speed of the mission.”

Leveraging a more than 60-year legacy of RF, electronic warfare systems and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance solutions, SNC’s Vindlér technology can simultaneously detect a wide range of emitters from VHF to Ka-band with high accuracy and throughputs rivaling or exceeding entire competitor constellations. Critical applications include GPS jamming and spoofing detection, maritime domain awareness, dark vessel tracking and more in support of national security efforts. This technology is particularly critical when evaluating operations in contested or denied access areas.

Thanks to high-capacity downlinks, robust inter-satellite links and automated onboard processing, Vindlér can compress and analyze RF data in orbit, reducing raw data volumes and accelerating delivery. SNC states that intelligence can move from collection to operational users in as little as four hours, a stark contrast to the multi-day timelines common with legacy systems. The advanced RF solution also features multi-modal analytics with twice-daily downlink revisits, ensuring timely and precise data delivery.

“Vindlér brings together SNC’s deep RF sensing and ELINT heritage with Muon’s flight-proven spacecraft platform,” said Jonny Dyer, CEO of Muon Space. “The result is a purpose-built constellation delivering mission-grade RF geolocation and same-day tasking at the scale today’s operations demand.” 

The satellites, built on the Condor-M platform, are substantially larger and more capable than prior commercial RF collectors. The platform enables AI to be integrated directly into the onboard processing chain – allowing more intelligent analysis to be performed in space before downlink, reducing latency and increasing the actionability of delivered intelligence.

Over the next several years, SNC plans to increase the constellation to more than 20 satellites, all of which will collect additional RF bands and provide multiple revisits throughout the day. The company will continue work on the Vindlér program from its facility in Herndon, Virginia, which is also home to the company’s state-of-the-art technology integration and demonstration facility known as The Grid. 

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About SNC

SNC is a trusted global leader in aerospace and national security. Our innovative solutions enable connected protection through command, control and communications systems, as well as ISR, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum management, and other high capabilities for national security systems across all domains – sea, land, air, space and cyber. As a longstanding leader in defense technology, SNC is at the optimum intersection of commercial, defense and non-traditional contractors. We are one of the only privately owned mid-tier A&D contractors and we pride ourselves on our ability to invest early and often to ensure mission success on or ahead of schedule. It’s part of our mission to always stay one step ahead; working on solutions today to solve the problems of tomorrow. Founded in 1963, SNC is owned by Chairwoman Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen.

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About Muon Space

Muon Space is the Mission Foundry, designing, building, and operating high-performance satellite constellations for defense, civil, and commercial customers. Founded in 2021, the company has engineered every layer: spacecraft, instruments, software, and operations, all designed to work together from simulation to orbit. With advanced production facilities in Silicon Valley and multiple constellations already on orbit, Muon delivers in months, not years.

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Media Contacts:

SNC: Ayse Caglar | 775-331-0222 | comms@sncorp.com 

Muon Space: Michael Sias | Firm 19 for Muon Space | comms@muonspace.com 

Source: Muon Space