Digital rendering of a BCT satellite based on the XB1 bus. Photo: BCT

[Via Satellite 06-24-2015] Commercial weather startup PlanetiQ has selected Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) to manufacture its constellation of GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) satellites. The company’s aerospace engineering team is already co-located at BCT’s Boulder, Colo. facilities — where both the satellites and sensors will be manufactured and integrated — working together on the initial set of 12 microsatellites.

With launches planned for 2016 and 2017, PlanetiQ’s initial constellation is designed to provide 8 million data points per day, taking dense, precise measurements of global temperature, pressure and water vapor. The company recently completed the successful testing of its first Pyxis weather sensor, and is setting up for production with BCT.

BCT has delivered components and systems for numerous space missions. PlanetiQ said in a statement that BCT has aided in significantly reducing the size and weight of its satellites without sacrificing instrument capabilities. PlanetiQ President and CEO Anne Hale Miglarese told Via Satellite in an interview earlier this month that she expects the company’s satellites will have a mass of about 22 kilograms.