Britain puts second military satellite Titania into orbit
Britain has put a second military satellite into orbit. The Ministry of Defence announced on Saturday that Titania, a British-built spacecraft, launched last month and is now in orbit, giving the Armed Forces what the ministry calls a new pair of eyes in space.
Titania is the second satellite in the UK's growing military constellation, following Tyche, and will be operated by UK Space Command as part of the ISTARI programme, which is building satellites and ground systems for space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Like Tyche, Titania weighs around 100 kilograms, about the size of a washing machine, and circles the Earth every 90 minutes at about 27,000 kilometres per hour. It was designed and built in Hampshire by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and BAE Systems under a £9.5 million contract, and will be followed by satellites Juno, built with SSTL, and Oberon, built with Airbus Defence and Space.
The announcement also stood up Project Inaros, a trial of three ground-based neuromorphic sensors, developed by British-Australian company Optera with the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, at sites in the UK, Australia and British facilities on Cyprus. The sensors, which detect changes in light in a way that mimics biological processes, are intended to monitor movements in space and could become an early warning system for unusual or threatening activity near UK satellites. The work sits within more than £3 billion of defence space investment over four years set out in the Defence Investment Plan.
The orbit announcement, the satellite's weight, speed and 90-minute circuit, the £9.5 million contract and the Inaros sensor sites all come from the Ministry of Defence's own announcement of 7 November, and the same facts are reported by defence-blog.com. The ministry says only that the launch was completed last month; satellite catalogue records reported by other outlets place the launch on 1 October aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg in California, and ITV reporting cited elsewhere confirms an October launch from California on a SpaceX rocket. The ministry's announcement does not give a detailed account of commissioning results or of the satellite's full sensor configuration.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said space underpins everything from weather forecasts and financial transactions to sat-navs and mobile phone connections, and that having Titania in orbit and Inaros stepping up how the UK watches over its satellites means threats can be seen sooner. Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth, the Chief of the Air Staff, said the ability to observe the Earth from space was critical to national resilience and military advantage, and that Tyche and Titania, alongside Juno and Oberon in the years ahead, would demonstrate it. BAE Systems said the programme showed the strength of the UK's sovereign space capability.
Titania is meant to improve the Armed Forces' ability to observe military activity on Earth from space and to coordinate efforts on and above it. Data from Inaros will go to UK Space Command units, including No. 1 Space Operations Squadron, No. 2 Space Warning Squadron and the new No. 3 Space Effects Squadron, to safeguard the satellites that guide British ships, connect mobile phones and warn of missile attacks.