Terran Orbital ships two GeoOptics satellites to Cape Canaveral. Photo: Terran Orbital

Terran Orbital Corporation shipped two next-generation satellites for Earth observation company GeoOptics to Cape Canaveral ahead of launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-5 rideshare mission. The Transporter-5 mission is set for May 25. 

The spacecraft are the first phase of GeoOptics’s Cicero-2 constellation, designed to monitor the impacts of climate change. These second-generation satellites were developed by Terran Orbital’s international arm, Tyvak International. The spacecraft are 6u XXL. GeoOptics’s payload is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) system. It is a miniaturized version of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory “TriG” payload named Cion.

“The CICERO-2 satellites will provide new accurate, sustainable Earth monitoring on a significantly faster cadence so that governments, companies, and individuals can prepare for the impact of climate change,” said GeoOptics Chief Executive Officer Alex Saltman. “Our  expanded partnership with Terran Orbital is critical in delivering these advanced capabilities to customers across the globe.”

GeoOptics’s first generation satellites were designed and developed by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a Terran Orbital Corporation.