A Russian military spacecraft that approached a Western satellite last month could have been rehearsing an attack, a military space specialist said.
The Russia’s military satellite Cosmos 2612 maneuvered dangerously close to X36, a commercial radar-imaging satellite operated by the Finnish company ICEYE that provides intelligence to Western governments and Ukraine.
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’.
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.
