A United States spacecraft was spotted launching in the skies off the coast of Peel.

It lit up the sky at around 10.20pm on Monday. Manx Independent reader Dave Corkish sent in an astonishing photograph of the craft.

The vehicle was a United Launch Atlas 5 rocket with the Landsat 9 satellite on board.

The project is a joint endeavour between NASA and the US Geological Survey.

It is the latest in a series of environmental satellites designed to extend an unbroken data record of global land images that dates back to the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972.

Developed for around $750 million, Landsat 9 is a near-clone of the Landsat 8 satellite launched in 2013.

With two Landsat satellites operating simultaneously, the constellation will observe all of Earth’s land surfaces every eight days, returning pictures used to track agriculture, forests, coastal waters, and urban growth.

Karen St. Germain, head of NASA’s Earth science division, said: ’It tells us about vegetation, land use, coastlines, and surface water, just to name a few. But the power is really unleashed when we combine the data from Landsat with our other Earth science missions.

’That can tell us not just what is happening, but also why.’