{
  "id": "cso",
  "name": "Composante Spatiale Optique (CSO)",
  "aliases": [],
  "domain": "space",
  "country": "FRA",
  "category": "Optical reconnaissance satellites",
  "status": "in-service",
  "fielded": null,
  "operators": [
    "FRA",
    "DEU"
  ],
  "summary": "French high-resolution military optical satellites replacing Helios 2; CSO 3 shared with Germany.",
  "specs": [
    {
      "k": "orbit_regime",
      "v": "LEO (sun-synchronous)",
      "src": [
        "gsp-cso-1"
      ],
      "conf": "medium"
    },
    {
      "k": "altitude_km",
      "v": [
        480,
        800
      ],
      "src": [
        "gsp-cso-1"
      ],
      "conf": "medium"
    },
    {
      "k": "sats_count",
      "v": 3,
      "src": [
        "gsp-cso-1"
      ],
      "conf": "medium",
      "note": "2018, 2020, 2025"
    },
    {
      "k": "design_life_yr",
      "v": 10,
      "src": [
        "gsp-cso-1"
      ],
      "conf": "medium"
    },
    {
      "k": "first_launch",
      "v": 2018,
      "src": [
        "gsp-cso-1"
      ],
      "conf": "medium"
    }
  ],
  "payloads": [],
  "variants": [],
  "art": "satellite",
  "image": null,
  "verified": null,
  "changelog": [
    {
      "date": "2026-11-08",
      "change": "Entry created from cited open sources"
    }
  ],
  "url": "https://www.defensepedia.com/systems/cso.html",
  "sources": {
    "gsp-cso-1": {
      "title": "CSO 1, 2, 3",
      "publisher": "Gunter's Space Page",
      "url": "https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/cso-1.htm",
      "published": null,
      "tier": 3,
      "checked": "2026-11-08"
    }
  }
}