Space & Astronomy

Mystery Russian satellite is 'stalking' US military satellite

By T.K. Randall
April 28, 2023

Image Credit: NASA Russia may be attempting to spy on its enemy's satellites, new evidence suggests, with Kosmos-2558 - which launched back in August of last year - making a beeline for almost the exact same orbit as USA-326 - a classified 'overhead reconnaissance' satellite operated by the United States military.

In March, it inched even closer still by performing an orbit-raising maneuver to reach an inclination of approximately 35km beneath the US satellite.

Since then, it has passed very close by on several occasions, leading space experts to class it as an 'inspector' satellite that may be engaged in efforts to observe and collect data about enemy satellites.Something similar happened back in 2020 when the Kosmos-2542 satellite ventured perilously close to the optical intelligence satellite USA-245 on multiple occasions.

So while it seems as though the intention of these platforms is only to look and not to interfere, these developments suggest that not even classified military satellites can escape observation.

Whether or not this will lead to a potential escalation in the future, however, remains to be seen.

Source: The Independent

Tags: Satellite, Russia, United States