Four Russian Military Satellites Maneuver Close to ICEYE Satellite Supporting Ukraine
Tags Infrastructure
Four Russian military satellites (Kosmos 2610-2613), launched together on April 16 on a Soyuz-2.1b from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, adjusted their orbital inclinations by less than a degree over the past week to match the orbit of an ICEYE synthetic aperture radar satellite. ICEYE has been providing radar imagery to Ukraine. The maneuvering capability is unusual for satellites conducting typical missions.
Technical significance
Proximity operations between adversary and commercial/national-security satellites represent a growing domain of space conflict. The ability to match orbits enables potential kinetic or electronic interference with reconnaissance satellites. For the commercial satellite industry, this incident increases the risk calculus for operators providing intelligence services to conflict participants.