A Russian military satellite that approached a Western commercial satellite last month may have been simulating an attack, according to an expert on military space operations. Two other Russian spacecraft linked to the first are now heading toward another Western satellite.
Thomas DiNanno, a U.S. undersecretary of state, wrote on X following the mid-October incident that the Russian military satellite Cosmos 2612 had carried out “deliberate maneuvers dangerously close to a commercial satellite,” behavior “consistent with operations involving weapons in orbit,” according to Reuters, as reported by Agerpres.
The satellite in question, known as X36, is operated by the Finnish company ICEYE and provides radar imagery to Western governments and armed forces, including Ukraine’s. Three space experts described the incident as one of the closest known encounters between a Russian military spacecraft and a commercial satellite in low Earth orbit.
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