PlanetiQ's GNOMES-11 entered orbit aboard SpaceX's Bandwagon-5 mission on Oct. 20, adding a lower-inclination spacecraft that the company says is intended to broaden the timing and geographic spread of its weather observations.
PlanetiQ reported liftoff at 7:04 a.m. EDT (11:04 UTC). SpaceX's mission timeline places GNOMES-11's deployment at T+1 hour, 51 seconds. PlanetiQ said the satellite had contacted ground stations. A World Meteorological Organization record updated Oct. 22 lists it as commissioning, with operations not yet started.
CelesTrak's orbital data lists GNOMES-11 at a 52.99-degree inclination, with an apogee of 594 kilometers and a perigee of 586 kilometers. PlanetiQ describes the orbit as lower-inclination and non-Sun-synchronous, saying it is designed to diversify when and where the satellite collects data, including across tropical and subtropical regions and into mid-latitudes.
Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation (GNSS-RO) uses changes in navigation-satellite signals as they pass through the atmosphere to estimate atmospheric conditions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses these measurements to derive temperature, pressure and moisture information for numerical weather-prediction models. NOAA also says the data support space-weather applications.
NOAA separately awarded PlanetiQ a base award of $28,413,038 for 4,200 GNSS-RO profiles per day, including 700 with temporal-resolution enhancements, and 500 low-latency Total Electron Content tracks per day. PlanetiQ says surge options could raise the contract's value to $47,342,258. The scheduled delivery period runs from Dec. 1, 2026, to Dec. 1, 2028.
In an Oct. 8 update, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said El Niño was strengthening and put the probability of a strong-to-very-strong event through January-March 2027 above 83%. NOAA plans to issue its next diagnostic discussion Nov. 12.
