The Ministry of Defence has also dropped the very first snaps taken by its Noctis-1 military spy telescope. Major General Paul Tedman, commander of UK Space Command, warned that the cosmos has become an “invisible front line” and says the new tech is a massive game-changer
The Noctis-1 telescope has already beamed back images of the International Space Station and Britain’s Skynet military communications satellites.
The software, named Borealis, blends data from several different sources to give the National Space Operations Centre a clear picture of what’s lurking in the dark.
It tracks dangerous floating space junk and satellites belonging to foreign adversaries that might try to sabotage British tech.
Released for the first time, images from the Noctis-1 military space telescope. 🔭👀
The UK's extraordinary new Borealis software will use these images and data from multiple sources to give us a faster, clearer picture of everything orbiting Earth.@SciTechgovuk @spacegovuk pic.twitter.com/PbtMVq3SFW
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 22, 2026