The U.S. has special rules for satellites over one country: Israel

The limit has its roots in 1996, when Congress added an amendment on satellite imagery to the National Defense Authorization Act for the following fiscal year.

Under the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, or KBA, the office of Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, which is part of NOAA, can issue a U.S. license for collecting or distributing satellite images of Israel "only if such imagery is no more detailed or precise than satellite imagery of Israel that is available from commercial sources" — meaning outlets beyond the U.S.

For more than two decades, the resolution limit was set at 2 meters. So as technology and access to orbit improved, U.S. satellite companies lagged behind competitors such as the EU-based Airbus in providing images of Israel. Things finally changed three years ago, when the U.S. acknowledged that, with at least a dozen companies in eight countries offering imagery far superior to 2-meter resolution, the commercial satellite sector had surpassed the U.S.'s ability to control it.

So in 2020, the CRSRA sharply lowered the KBA's allowed resolution, from 2 meters to .40 meters — meaning one pixel in a satellite image of Israel can now depict a square on the ground measuring 40 centimeters by 40 centimeters. For reference, that's around the width of the handlebars on a 10-speed bicycle. "That's certainly enough to be able to make out what is going on on the ground at a pretty high fidelity," Korda said. Israeli officials were unhappy with the change.

"We would always prefer to be photographed at the lowest resolution possible," said retired Brig. Gen. Amnon Harari, head of Israel's space programs, at the time. "It's always preferable to be seen blurred, rather than precisely."

Last month, Planet told its investors that two sectors — "defense and intelligence" and "civil government" — were the company's two most lucrative areas for million-dollar-plus sales of annual contracts. And Lewis notes that for Maxar, the federal government is the company's biggest client.

"It is normally the case that in a conflict situation, we tend to see fewer Maxar images because they because the U.S. government is simply buying them," Lewis said. "But that's not a change, that's not a restriction. That's just a particular quirk of that company's business model."

Asked whether, for instance, the Israel Defense Forces might attempt to buy up images of their own positions, so no one else would have access to them, Lewis replied, "If I were the IDF, I would try to do that."

But, he added, "there are now so many companies and those companies are based around the world that buying up every image is going to be pretty tough."