Very Low Earth Orbits (VLEOs) are defined as having altitudes less than 400 km.VLEO spacecraft are of great interest due to the potential for lower launch costs,low latency, enhanced Earth observation resolution, and sustained in-situobservations in an undersampled atmospheric region. However, severalchallenges exist to the utilization of VELO spacecraft, many of which are closelyrelated to the upper atmosphere in this region. Enhanced drag results in shorterspacecraft lifetimes and increased heating. Tracking and telemetry arecomplicated by the higher velocities combined with uncertainties in orbitpropagation drag models. The dominant atmospheric constituent at thesealtitudes is atomic oxygen, which is a corrosive oxidization agent acting uponspacecraft materials.We propose a three pronged approach to developing VLEO spaceflight capacityand utilizing such spacecraft for scientific and Earth observation purposes, inconjunction with existing missions and models along with colleagues inSingapore and the U.S.. This will result in the development of two spacecraft incollaboration with French electric propulsion firm ThrustMe, to be launched in2020 and 2022. The spacecraft will carry the Compact Ionospheric Probe (CIP), ato be developed atomic oxygen sensor capable of detecting atomic oxygenfluxes, optical or hyperspectral imagers, as well as GPS receivers. Bothspacecraft will carry ion thrusters that are capable of sustaining a 6U CubeSat at250 km altitude for 11 months under moderate solar conditions. This effort willestablish the capacity and expertise needed for VLEO spacecraft design andoperations in Taiwan.CIP and the atomic oxygen sensor will allow for the seasonal variation ofthermosphere/ionosphere composition to be explored at VLEO altitudes, which inthe past, has been limited mostly to sporadic sounding rocket observations. Thiswill extend the ionospheric observations of FORMOSAT-5/AIP, INSPIRESat-1,IDEASSat, and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 to provide in-situ observations atmultiple altitudes and local times. The combined dataset will be compared toresults from data assimilation models and used to understand vertical couplingeffects. The GPS ephemeris from the two VLEO missions, as well as from otherLEO missions, will be used to quantify the orbit propagation error when usingcurrent empirical drag models, as well as the physics-based models driven bydata assimilation. The orbit propagation errors will be further analyzed bymachine learning algorithms to produce empirical models for error correction.This will facilitate the application of physics-based models to spacecraft trackingand orbit propagation - one of the key objectives of operationalizing spaceweather research results. The effect of assimilating in-situ observations fromVLEO on forecast ability will also be explored. Finally, the hyperspectral imagerbeing developed by NCU will be carried aboard the second spacecraft, and willbe used to identify and track PM2.5 aerosol pollutants. This will elucidate andleverage the strengths of a VLEO Earth observation platform, while also providingobservations crucial to public health and environmental studies. Taken together,this project will allow for the operationalization of aeronomy research results tosupport the development of aerospace systems in a challenging, but promising,operational environment.