First, the object reported by FT does exist and it (she?) indeed performed a series of maneuvers between June and November 2014 to reach its rocket stage, Briz-KM, with possible close flyby on November 9 and a possible close re-approach in the near future. All this is easily seen from evolution of orbital elements for the two available from the USSTRATCOM.Second, it was not any new in space. A tiny British satellite SNAP-1 attempted such a feat and almost succeeded in the summer of 2000. The U.S. performed such maneuvers at least twice in their DART/MUBLCOM (2005) and ASTRO/NEXTSAT (2007) missions. China performed at least three such missions, namely Shijian 12 (August and November 2010), Shijan 9 (October 2012) and Shijian 15/Shiyan 7 (since July 2013).Third, you should check about Russian military space missions with relevant PR offices of the Ministry of Defence and Federal Space Agency. I would not comment on these.
BUMP:Kosmos 2499 Payload Started Morse Code Transmissions of TLM on Sunday:November 25 encounter, new moves, transmissionsThe mysterious Kosmos-2499 made another close pass near Briz-KM on November 25, 2014. The subsequent modeling of the pair's motion by Russian observers based on available orbital elements data indicated that Kosmos-2499 had come within 526 meters from Briz-KM at a relative speed of just 0.064 meters per second at 05:54 Moscow Time. The spacecraft spent most of the day maneuvering at a distance from a half a kilometer to one kilometer from its target.After several days of orbiting the Earth at an average altitude from 20 to 30 meters below Briz-KM, Kosmos-2499 climbed few dozen of meters above the stage on November 29, 2014, estimates showed. A day later, to the surprise and delight of the amateur radio enthusiasts around the world, the mystery satellite started transmitting telemetry in Morse code under a call sign RS-47, a Russian amateur radio enthusiast Dmitry Pashkov reported. (Pashkov first detected mysterious signals that he had eventually traced to Kosmos-2499 in the summer of 2014.)R4UAB: COSMOS 2499 (2014-028E) 2014.11.20 18:54 UTCThis radio-signature was typical of all satellites based on the Yubileiny platform -- another evidence of the similarity between Kosmos-2499 and its potential civilian cousins.What makes it move?A relatively small size of the mysterious Kosmos-2499 satellite combined with a great deal of its maneuvering in orbit made some observers wonder about the type of the propulsion system employed in the mission. Unsubstantiated claims were made on the Internet that the spacecraft could carry some super-efficient ion engines to perform its complex orbital dance.According to estimates, all the maneuvers by Kosmos-2499 that have been detected from the ground over a six-month period resulted in an estimated velocity change (or delta V) totaling 190 meters per second. Assuming that the spacecraft had a mass of around 50 kilograms, like its potential civilian cousin, Yubileiny satellite, and the specific impulse of its engine was around 300 seconds, almost half of its "content" would have to be propellant, one observer of the mission on the online forum of the Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine estimated. However with a specific impulse of 2,100 meters per second only 10 percent of its mass would have to be dedicated to propellant, Igor Lisov, the editor at Novosti Kosmonavtiki estimated.Most importantly, short-duration maneuvers reaching 30 meters per second separated by hours of passive flight observed during the flight of Kosmos-2499 betray the action of a traditional liquid propellant engine onboard the spacecraft, rather than the work of ion-electric engines, which produce low but continuous thrust. As a result, Kosmos-2499 likely made its spectacular performance with traditional rocket engines, Lisov said.LINKS (Related to this Targeting Platform):http://russianspaceweb.com/Cosmos-2499.html#1125http://russianspaceweb.com/naryad.htmlhttp://russianspaceweb.com/yubileiny.html
Roskosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko denied today that Kosmos-2491 and Kosmos-2499 are "killer satellites" or have any relation to the country's military space program. He described them as scientific satellites in a joint effort between Roskosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences and added that they have completed their intended flight programs. Ostapenko also said that in November Russia submitted a document to the UN forbidding the deployment of weapons in space and doing something that would violate that initiative "would be incorrect". http://itar-tass.com/kosmos/1647008http://rusnovosti.ru/news/357447/
Would be more convincing if he described the scientific instruments or even specified some general scientific subject area that they are designed for...
Quote from: B. Hendrickx on 12/15/2014 08:57 pmRoskosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko denied today that Kosmos-2491 and Kosmos-2499 are "killer satellites" or have any relation to the country's military space program. He described them as scientific satellites in a joint effort between Roskosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences and added that they have completed their intended flight programs. Ostapenko also said that in November Russia submitted a document to the UN forbidding the deployment of weapons in space and doing something that would violate that initiative "would be incorrect". http://itar-tass.com/kosmos/1647008http://rusnovosti.ru/news/357447/Would be more convincing if he described the scientific instruments or even specified some general scientific subject area that they are designed for...
This is the second breakup of Kosmos-2499, after the first one on 2021 Oct 23.
#18SDS has confirmed the breakup of COSMOS 2499 (#39765, 2014-028E) - occurred Jan 4, 2023 at appx 0357 UTC. Tracking 85 associated pieces at est 1169 km altitude - analysis ongoing. #spacedebris #space @SpaceTrackOrg @US_SpaceCom @ussfspoc
Cosmos-2499Presence of high rate downlink indicates some sort of payload that requires high amount of data to be transferred. On several passes, data that looked like image data were downloaded. Seems to be 3 channels of B/W image at various gain levels. Resulution of one image is 854x1284 pixels. Images seems to be taken at pre-set intervals, so they capture random view without any specific orientation. Almost all were almost completely black, with following exception.This image seems to show sun disc on the right side with some lens flare effects on the bottom left. Another possible object is visible in center left part of image.