With assistance from Space X’s Falcon 9, the UK launched a military satellite into space for the first time over the weekend.

BELFAST — The UK has sent its first military spy satellite into space to capture daytime images and videos of the Earth’s surface.

The satellite, known as Tyche, is the lead system from the wider £968 million ($1.2 billion) ISTARI programme, aimed at delivering a multi-satellite Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) constellation, together with future ground systems, by 2031.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) noted in a Saturday statement that Tyche will also contribute to natural disaster surveillance, environmental monitoring and climate change impact tracking.

Tyche was launched from a reusable Space X Falcon 9 rocket, out of Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., as part of the company’s Transporter 11 mission.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, Space X said Falcon 9 had launched 116 “spacecraft to orbit” as part of “our 375th mission.”

London added that the “first signals” from Tyche were received “a few hours after lift-off, confirming the successful launch.”

Tyche will operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) until 2029, with three other UK research and development satellites (Juno, Oberon and Titania) belonging to the £127 million ($164 million) MINERVA technology and innovation programme, set to follow.

Results and findings from MINERVA will shape the long term development of the ISTARI effort.

London defined Tyche’s design and build phase, first announced in April 2022, as a “critical first step in identifying the processing power, radio frequencies and imagery capabilities UK Space Command requires to provide timely space-based intelligence processing power, radio frequencies and imagery capabilities UK Space Command requires to provide timely space-based intelligence.”

The 150-kilogram Tyche satellite, comparable to the size of a washing machine, was manufactured by Surrey Satellites Technology Limited under a £22 million ($28 million) contract awarded by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the UK’s military procurement arm.

Separate from ISTARI, the UK is currently invested in upgrading the in-service Skynet 5 military satellite constellation to the more modern Skynet 6 system.

As previously reported, Airbus holds a contract valued at more than £500 million ($610 million) for SKYNET 6A, the future military communications satellite planned for launch in 2025 and based on the manufacturer’s Eurostar Neo telecommunications satellite platform.