Artist rendition of Orbital Micro Systems Microwave Sensor Satellite. Photo: Orbital Micro Systems

Orbital Micro Systems (OMS) revealed that the first satellite in its Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) constellation has been delivered to NanoRacks for launch integration. Housed in an AAC Clyde Space bus, the satellite will be launched April 17 from Wallops Island, Virginia. It will be put into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) on the International Space Station (ISS) — via NanoRacks’ Space Act Agreement with NASA’s US National Lab.

In addition to this launch, OMS plans to place six to eight more weather observation satellites in orbit throughout 2019. The mission is part of the In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) Program, funded by Innovate U.K. and managed by the Satellite Applications Catapult.

“The launch of the IOD-1 GEMS puts us on the cusp of the next generation in weather and earth data driven analytics that will have a profound effect on all aspects of society impacted by the accuracy of weather forecasting,” said OMS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) William Hosack. “Through the dedicated efforts of the OMS and Clyde Space engineering teams, our satellite has passed all launch readiness tests and is cleared to fly. After deployment in low earth orbit, the satellite will gather and transmit atmospheric observation data which will be aligned and integrated with other atmospheric and weather datasets at our International Center for Earth Data (ICED) in Edinburgh. We anticipate that the resulting datasets will begin to improve the quality and temporal resolution of weather intelligence available to commercial, governmental, and institutional users.”