Satellite operator SES will host a NASA upper atmospheric research payload on an unspecified geostationary-orbiting satellite scheduled for launch around 2017, according to a space agency official.

The satellite will host NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) sensor, according to Jeffrey Newmark, heliophysics explorer program scientist at NASA. GOLD, one of two heliophysics explorer missions NASA recently selected for full-scale development, will study Earth’s thermosphere and ionosphere.