The Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite, officially known as CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite – or CHEOPS, is a joint European Space Agency and Swiss Space Office space telescope designed to study the formation and sizes of known transiting exoplanets.
Liftoff of the mission, which includes the first of the second generation of Cosmo-SkyMed satellites as well as three smaller CubeSats, took place from the Guiana Space Center on Wednesday, following a scrub during the countdown on Tuesday.