Last Saturday, a 17,000 mph game of cat-and-mouse appears to have played out in low Earth orbit.
According to new images obtained by Axios, the Russian satellite Cosmos 2612 engaged in maneuvers that brought it within less than a mile of the Swedish-made Earth observation satellite Iceye-X36. According to the outlet’s reporting, the Russian craft burned fuel in order to adjust its altitude and speed to match that of the US-operated satellite.
In a post on social media, US undersecretary of state Thomas DiNanno blasted the Russian space agency for “exhibiting threatening behavior by intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite,” which he claims are “consistent with on-orbit weapons operations.”
Russian officials, meanwhile, dismissed the accusation that its satellites are armed and ready for combat as “unfounded,” instead framing the event as an operation meant to counter Western intelligence sharing with the Ukrainian military.
“Western countries headed by the United States continue to use loudspeaker diplomacy repeating absurd accusations about Russia’s space activity,” deputy head of Russia’s delegation to the United Nations Konstantin Vorontsov said in a statement translated by Ars Technica.
The Iceye-X36 is a sun-synchronous craft, meaning it’s always flying on the sunlit side of the Earth at any given time. It works as part of a constellation of over 50 small satellites equipped with synthetic aperture radar, a type of imaging equipment which uses microwaves to produce high-resolution images of the ground.
Beyond the Iceye constellation, the US Space Force has previously admitted to outfitting military satellites with weapons, which has drawn its own condemnation from other space-faring countries over the militarization of the skies above.
Regardless of the cause, the Russian spacecraft’s maneuvers demonstrate just one of the many techniques spacefaring countries can use to jockey for orbital supremacy. As for whether the US has any plans to respond, military officials were tight-lipped.
“We are aware of the situation and tracking it closely,” a US Space Force spokesperson told Air And Space Forces Magazine in a boilerplate statement. “Our constellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience.”
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