The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is the first NASA satellite mission led by the University of Illinois. It is also the first mission dedicated to observing the Earth’s exosphere, which is a vital component in understanding space weather. Launched on September 24, 2025, we are now receiving and analyzing the first science data. As the Science Data and Operations Center (SDOC) manager, I will be presenting an overview of our data-processing pipeline and data-management strategy, along with the challenges of designing for space mission. I will also show some of our early data and the surprises we’ve discovered.