Rapideye and SkySat aside, Planet primarily operates a monitoring constellation, rather than a tasking constellation. The doves (satellites used to take this an

Rapideye and SkySat aside, Planet primarily operates a monitoring constellation, rather than a tasking constellation. The doves (satellites used to take this and the satellites being launched) are focused on imaging the land surface of the Earth with an approximately daily cadence. They don't target a particular area, try to reorient, or even have active propulsion (just reaction wheels). This is an exception -- the satellite was tasked to try to capture this and did reorient itself to do so. For the most part, though, the doves just point straight down and capture images whenever they're over land and it's not forecast to be completely cloudy. There are over a hundred of them imaging the earth like a line scanner as it rotates beneath their orbit. The Rapideye satellites operate completely differently, though. They are tasked, and do have to reorient as you mentioned, thus the minimum area requirement for acquisition of Rapideye imagery.