A former Department of Civil Aviation aircraft, VH-CAT joined the Australian government scientific research organisation in 1978. It was used for all manner of scientific research and experiments. COSSA was the CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications. At one stage VH-CAT was named "Cyrano", a reference to a very long nose probe sometimes fitted. The name was dropped by 1987 even though the nose probe continued to be fitted when required.