Remember the Space Force?

It sounded like a joke at first, or the brainchild of someone who had spent too many hours watching science fiction as a kid, even though we were told it was a real thing.

There’s no denying it’s presence now, as they launch spy satellites into orbit.

The US Space Force launched a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket laden with spy satellites, with a stated mission of doing reconnaissance work on any adversary that could pose a threat in outer space.

The satellites are meant to sit in a high-altitude geosynchronous orbit, typically used by military and weather satellites.

NRO Director Chris Scolese explained more to CBS News.

“The idea of the mission is to put a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and then to be looking at the orbital regime and get a sense of what’s happening day to day. We also want to know if there is something going on that is unexpected, or shouldn’t be going on that could potentially represent a threat to a high-value asset, either ours or one of our allies.”

This is a result of the competition among world powers to be the first to take conventional spying into outer space, with large players working on anti-satellite tech.

Commander of Space Systems Command for Space Force Michael Guetlein also spoke on the mission, which is designed to give better view in the “geo belt.”

“A huge element of deterrence is the ability for the adversary to know what we can and cannot see. So we actually want our competitors to know that we have eyes in geo, that we can see what’s happening. Not only are we are going to maintain the custody and the ability to detect what’s going on in geo, but we’ll have the indications and warnings to know there’s something out of the normal occurring. And that goes a long way toward deterrence.”

An orbiting arms race is clearly on.

The US Space Force intends to have the systems aboard the satellites up and running by 2026.