TYCHE: UK MOD’s First Sovereign ISR spacecraft successfully launched

TYCHE: UK MOD’s First Sovereign ISR spacecraft successfully launched
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) are delighted to announce the successful launch of TYCHE for UK Space Command.  TYCHE is UK MOD’s first sovereign Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) satellite.

Just before 8pm (UK time) on 16th August, TYCHE and 115 other satellites commenced their delivery into Low Earth Orbit on the Space X Falcon 9 Transporter-11 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, US.  TYCHE is an optical imaging microsatellite, approximately 160 kg in mass, designed and manufactured in Guildford, UK, by SSTL. Tyche is the 74th satellite launched by SSTL since 1981. (See below pic of SSTL’s Martin Sweeting & Andrew Cawthorne watching the launch at SSTL HQ in Guildford with UK Space Command’s Chris Page and Rachel Spicer & Dave Luney of Defence Equipment & Support, MOD.)