A Russian military spacecraft that approached a Western satellite last month could have been rehearsing an attack, a military space specialist said.
Two Russian affiliated crafts are now heading in the direction of another Western satellite.
US Under Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno said on X following the mid-October incident that Russia’s Cosmos 2612 military satellite had been ‘intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite’ in conduct ‘consistent with on-orbit weapons operations’.
The satellite approached, called X36, is operated by Finnish company ICEYE and provides radar imagery to Western governments and militaries, including Ukraine.
It comes after a US space technology company LeoLabs said last month Moscow’s Cosmos 2612 had shifted to being in ‘extreme proximity’ of Kyiv-linked Iceye’s X36 satellite over South America.
Three space specialists described the incident as one of the closest known approaches by a Russian military spacecraft to a commercial satellite in low altitude orbit.
The encounter ‘looks like an attack rehearsal’, said Greg Gillinger, a senior space analyst at Integrity ISR, a US company that provides training to US space forces. ‘This is the most aggressive posture I’ve seen Russia take in terms of threatening satellites from another nation,’ he told Reuters.
Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Moscow has repeatedly warned that commercial Western satellites helping Ukraine could become legitimate targets for retaliation.
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