As Canada and the western U.S. grapple with some of their worst wildfires in recent history, three satellites launched into low orbit in July that were built to deliver AI-powered wildfire detection across the globe.
As PCMag reports, the satellites, part of the “FireSat” initiative by the non-profit Earth Fire Alliance, can detect low-intensity fires before they are detected by other means, providing third parties with information on where the fire is traveling.
The initiative has attracted funding from Google Research as well as the Bezos Earth Fund, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The craft themselves are manufactured by US-based start-up Muon Space.
As Ars Technica reports, the three satellites were launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket early in July. After a three-month testing period, they will begin detecting fires in the US, Australia, and Europe before the end of 2026.
Muon Space, which manufactures the craft, says the satellites can detect fires as small as 16-by-16 feet, significantly smaller than existing ones. In addition, they detect fires through smoke and even when clouds block them. Operational data from satellites is compared with historical images of sites and factors such as local weather, using AI provided by Google Research, to detect and predict fires.
The Earth Fire Alliance estimates that the project could save more than $1 billion in fire-damage costs in the US annually, protect 3,500 homes and properties, and reduce burned land by 1.3 million acres.
You may not know it, but you’ve already seen FireSat’s tech in action. In the summer of 2025, the company’s Protoflight satellite captured images of one of the first small fires in Oregon that were undetected by existing satellites. Earth Fire Alliance and Muon Space plan for their full constellation to comprise over 50 satellites by 2030.
Wildfires remain an incredibly serious issue globally. Projections by NASA have found that extreme wildfire activity has doubled in the past 21 years.
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