Securing the Hawaiian Launchpad

The Pacific campaign officially launched in January 2026 in the GAO's birthplace of Hawaiʻi Island. Over the following months, the team ran a coordinated set of missions across the islands — surveying the 120-mile West Hawaiʻi coral corridor from ʻUpolu Point to South Point, updating long-term coral time series data, and conducting real-time water quality assessments.

In May, following severe storm systems earlier in the year, GAO rapidly deployed statewide flight lines across Oʻahu, Maui, and Kauaʻi to map nearshore sediment plumes and reef impact zones for the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The same month, the team returned to Hilo to conduct targeted underflights of the new Tanager-1 satellite in direct partnership with Planet Labs — ground-truthing satellite data from the upper atmosphere down to the living reef below.

With the Hawaiʻi phase complete, the aircraft departed for the Western Pacific — beginning the long transit toward Guam and the next chapter of the campaign.