Pioneer Spire liftoff

The first launch of the ESA ARTES Pioneer programme took place on 29 November 2018 at 04:27 GMT, from Sriharikota, India, by the Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

Two nanosatellites built by Spire Global were launched into low Earth orbit.

Named ‘Space as a Service’, the Spire Pioneer mission aims to prove the value of using nanosats for space-based Radio Occultation: the process of using satellites to measure how GNSS signals are refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere.