Russians spying on US spy satellite

[Eldorado]

"A mysterious Russian spacecraft has maneuvered into a new orbit around Earth right behind a secret U.S. spy satellite.

"The unusual move by Russian Cosmos 2542 on Jan. 20 allows it to closely watch the American KH-11, a $4 billion orbital telescope staring down at Earth.

"And there’s not much that U.S. space operators can do about it."

Full monty at the Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-is-mystery-russian-spacecraft-cosmos-2542-suddenly-stalking-a-us-spy-satellite

"The movement of the Russian satellite was tracked on Thursday by Michael Thompson, a graduate student and independent satellite tracker, and detailed on Twitter.

"Cosmos 2542 has had the capability to observe USA 245 consistently for the past week and is ‘loitering’ around US 245 in consistent view, he said."

Full story at Albawaba dot com: https://www.albawaba.com/editors-choice/why-russias-cosmos-2542-stalking-us-spy-satellite-1336491

[+and-then]

Interesting... maybe they got tired of our X-37 doing it to theirs  

[pallidin]

This is to be expected in the "spy-versus-spy" game, of course, but what the Russians don't readily realize is that our satellite being monitored by them is sending-out false signals as a countermeasure.

I can only imagine what a 4 BILLION dollar satellite, from either country, is capable of in both measures and countermeasures.

Edited February 3, 2020 by pallidin

[pallidin]

And come to think of it I would be more worried about it being close enough in orbit to do a future detonation charge to take out that U.S. satellite.

I've heard, without credible source, that the Russians are positioning certain of their "special exploding satellites" close towards U.S. spy satellites for potential detonation purposes in the event of war, or, to effort a "first-strike" if desired.

Not sure how much I believe that, though.

[+Hammerclaw]

The X-37 has been EMP mining enemy satellites for several years now. We flip a switch and all their satellites go dark, permanently.

[aztek]

you don't really believe that yourself do you? lol. 

[RAyMO]

 

21 hours ago, Eldorado said:

"A mysterious Russian spacecraft has maneuvered into a new orbit around Earth right behind a secret U.S. spy satellite.

"The unusual move by Russian Cosmos 2542 on Jan. 20 allows it to closely watch the American KH-11, a $4 billion orbital telescope staring down at Earth.

A better idea would be position it in front of the US telescope, giving the us 24/365 view of very little.

[+Hammerclaw]

11 minutes ago, aztek said:

you don't really believe that yourself do you? lol. 

Actually, I do. Since it's long duration military missions, I rather doubt they're just seeing the sights. A small module inserted in sync with the orbit of an enemy spy/communication/GPS satellite to deliver an EMP burst to fry it's electronics makes perfect military sense. Knock their eyes out of the sky in one fell swoop.

[Gromdor]

3 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Actually, I do. Since it's long duration military missions, I rather doubt they're just seeing the sights. A small module inserted in sync with the orbit of an enemy spy/communication/GPS satellite to deliver an EMP burst to fry it's electronics makes perfect military sense. Knock their eyes out of the sky in one fell swoop.

Why do that when you could just hi-jack it?  That's my guess as to what this Russian satellite is doing.  It seems wasteful to blow up a $4 billion dollar satellite when you can just send something up to intercept it's signals and send your own to it.

[aztek]

2 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Actually, I do. Since it's long duration military missions, I rather doubt they're just seeing the sights. A small module inserted in sync with the orbit of an enemy spy/communication/GPS satellite to deliver an EMP burst to fry it's electronics makes perfect military sense. Knock their eyes out of the sky in one fell swoop.

and do you think it won't affect ours sats?  our sats are no better protected against emp than theirs, as well as sats belonging to other countries

[Robotic Jew]

20 hours ago, pallidin said:

This is to be expected in the "spy-versus-spy" game, of course, but what the Russians don't readily realize is that our satellite being monitored by them is sending-out false signals as a countermeasure.

I can only imagine what a 4 BILLION dollar satellite, from either country, is capable of in both measures and countermeasures.

Well now they know...Thanks a lot!

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

19 hours ago, Hammerclaw said:

The X-37 has been EMP mining enemy satellites for several years now. We flip a switch and all their satellites go dark, permanently.

Both Russia and China have demonstrated anti satellite capabilities, so as soon as the US does anything like that to them you can expect them to retaliate. The US is probably more dependent on satellites than a potential enemy, so is it worth the risk ? 

[+Hammerclaw]

4 hours ago, Gromdor said:

Why do that when you could just hi-jack it?  That's my guess as to what this Russian satellite is doing.  It seems wasteful to blow up a $4 billion dollar satellite when you can just send something up to intercept it's signals and send your own to it.

Complicated and unrealistic. We wouldn't blow up their satellites, just permanently disable them.

[+Hammerclaw]

4 hours ago, aztek said:

and do you think it won't affect ours sats?  our sats are no better protected against emp than theirs, as well as sats belonging to other countries

A directed shortrange EMP from a small source wouldn't have the range to affect other satellites, just the one it's adjacent to. 

[+Hammerclaw]

2 hours ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said:

Both Russia and China have demonstrated anti satellite capabilities, so as soon as the US does anything like that to them you can expect them to retaliate. The US is probably more dependent on satellites than a potential enemy, so is it worth the risk ? 

If we are at war, they'll do it, anyway, except this way, without satellite communications and GPS assets of their own. This is a contingency capability, better to have in place and not need, than to need and not have.

[aztek]

18 hours ago, Hammerclaw said:

A directed shortrange EMP from a small source wouldn't have the range to affect other satellites, just the one it's adjacent to. 

so then this can't really happen, can it?

Quote

We flip a switch and all their satellites go dark, permanently.

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by aztek

[+Hammerclaw]

2 hours ago, aztek said:

so then this can't really happen, can it?

 

All it would take is a military spacecraft with orbital loitering capability to deploy dedicated cube sats to either generate or relay a localized EMP burst at each mined target.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Hammerclaw