The satellites are undergoing testing and calibration and are expected to begin providing operational wildfire data later this year. The FireSat satellites lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 7 as part of the Transporter-17 rideshare mission. They are the first operational satellites in a planned constellation designed specifically for wildfire detection, using advanced infrared sensors to identify fires as small as a schoolyard before they can grow into destructive wildfires. At full deployment, the network is expected to include more than 50 satel­lites capable of scanning the planet about every 20 minutes. That early work helped move FireSat from concept to an operational wildfire intelligence system.