[6] Its original goal was to launch a student-built spacecraft into low Earth orbit, which it accomplished in 2020 with the Spectral Ocean Color imager (SPOC).

[5][9] In 2015, three undergraduate students at the University of Georgia (Caleb Adams, Graham Grable, and Nicholas "Hollis" Neel) had the idea to found an aerospace start-up.

[11] The project was originally intended to be crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but it grew in scope and complexity over time, driving Adams, Neel, and Grable to seek faculty support and research funding.

Adams began emailing UGA faculty, and ultimately connected with Dr. Marshall Shepherd in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Geography.

[12] Shepherd put the students of Spacey Sciences, LLC in touch with then-associate professor Dr. Deepak R. Mishra and research scientist Dr. David Cotten, who were investigating the possibility of CubeSats for observation of near-coastal ocean health and productivity.

[21] SPOC was launched to the International Space Station on October 2, 2020 from NASA Wallops Flight Facility onboard the Cygnus NG-14 commercial resupply spacecraft.

MOCI will employ customize algorithms for feature extraction, structure from motion, surface reconstruction, data compression, and oceanic anomaly detection.