Overview
- The MoD declared Borealis operational this week, deploying the data-fusion software at the National Space Operations Centre to ingest imagery from the Noctis-1 military telescope.
- Borealis combines inputs from multiple sensors and uses edge software to fuse and analyse data quickly, giving operators an automated, faster picture of objects and threats in low Earth orbit.
- The first public images from Noctis-1 have been released and were fed into Borealis, which the MoD says has already tracked an on-orbit fragmentation of a Starlink satellite.
- The system is being delivered under a £65 million, five-year contract with CGI UK and is expected to support about 100 skilled roles across sites in Leatherhead, Reading and Bristol.
- Officials link the capability to wider resilience plans, noting that roughly 20% of UK GDP depends on satellite services and that the work will be followed by further sovereign sensors such as Noctis-2.