While it has not been confirmed by the Russian government, reports from Europe suggest Russia has created and is now testing a satellite capable of chasing down other spacecraft.
The technology would serve several different purposes, including the repair of malfunctioning space-based technologies; it could also be used to disable or destroy other spacecraft.
The satellite in the spotlight, referred to as Kosmos 2499, separated from the upper stage of its rocket two years ago; since then, it has been chasing down the rocket that launched it into orbit.
No country gave the mission a second thought as it appeared on the surface to be a routine mission to add new Rodnik communications satellites to an existing constellation. Upon further review, where previous Rodnik launches have carried three satellites into orbit, a fourth was brought up on this particular mission, and released into orbit.
When the U.S. military noticed an extra piece breaking away from the rocket at the time the satellites were released, it was chalked up as debris; however, this past May, the Russian government came forward to the United Nations to formally admit that this bit of debris was, in fact, a satellite, and that they had purposely launched four during the mission, and not three as originally reported.
Since then, satellite observers have been paying careful attention to the object, noting its use of engines to perform a series of unusual moves in space that changed its orbit. These maneuvers culminated on November 9 with a close approach to part of the rocket that first launched the satellite into orbit back in December 2013.
Specifically, satellite observer Robert Christy said that Kosmos 2499 came within a few tens of miles of the inactive Briz-KM rocket stage. Christy was one of the first to suggest the object was a chase-down satellite, tweeting in August “Cosmos 2499 – Maybe an inspector satellite? Its most probable target is the Briz-KM that launched it.”
For those unfamiliar, an inspector satellite is designed to sneak up on other satellites to get close-up photographs of the technology or to eavesdrop on its communications. It can also be used to disable spacecraft.
Use of this technology is prohibited by international treaties, but that doesn’t mean it’s not desired. As such, spying on their country’s own technologies have been conducted by other nations, including the U.S. and China, though a good majority of these missions have been openly conducted.
The technology itself has proven difficult to control, with several failures recorded in recent years.
This past summer, the U.S. Air Force launched an experimental satellite called ANGELS, which is short for Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space. It was designed to maneuver around the upper stage of the Delta 4 rocket that launched it into orbit, with stages of increased automation and independence from its Earth controls; highly sophisticated intelligence systems are necessary for such tasks.
Around the same time the Chinese launched its Shijan 15 satellite. It has since repeatedly approached and shadowed Shijan 7, an older Chinese satellite in orbit. Worth noting about this particular launch, though, is another spacecraft that went into orbit off the same Shijan 15 rocket — observationists suggest it may have had included with it a robotic arm to release and recapture a smaller companion satellite.
While this particular technology could be used by a space station to grab modules in orbit, it could very well be employed for the purpose of grabbing and disabling spacecraft belonging to another country.
Via BBC
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