SATLASOptical · Space
Pandora
OperatingOperating since 11 January 2026.
A NASA Pioneers smallsat with a 45 cm telescope that records visible photometryphotometryMeasuring the flux of a source in a passband. Aperture photometry sums pixels inside a region; PSF photometry fits the point-spread function; forced photometry measures at a position fixed in advance, whether or not a source is detected there. and near-infrared spectroscopy simultaneously, observing at least 20 exoplanets and their host stars ten times each in 24-hour stares that include a transittransitA planet passing in front of its star and blocking a fraction (R_p/R_*)² of its light, about 84 ppm for an Earth across the Sun. Repeated transits give period and radius; spectra taken during transit probe the planet's atmosphere.. Separates stellar contamination from unocculted spots and faculae from the planetary signal in transmission spectratransmission spectroscopyComparing a star's spectrum in and out of a planet's transit: wavelengths where the planet's atmosphere absorbs make the transit slightly deeper, revealing its molecules., to sharpen JWST's atmospheric measurements.
- Operator
- NASA, LLNL
- Orbit
- Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit
- Aperture
- 45 cm
- Passband
- 0.4 µm – 1.6 µm
- Launch
- 11 January 2026
Passband
Sky coverage
Long pointed observationspointed observationObserving chosen targets, usually selected by peer review in annual proposal cycles, as opposed to surveying the sky systematically. Gives depth on few objects; the total area observed stays small. of at least 20 planet hosts, each visited ten times.
Archives
Sources
Verified 15 November 2026.