Proton-M/Briz-M launch with Luch (aka Olymp) - 2023UTC September 27, 2014

[B. Hendrickx]

There was a distant encounter today between Luch/Olimp and its sister satellite Luch-5X (internally designated Yenisei-2). In late March, Luch/Olimp left its spot at 18.1°W, where it had spent nearly 2.5 years eavesdropping on Intelsat 37E (see the previous post). It has since been drifting eastward at a leisurely pace of 0.5 to 0.7° per day and is now at roughly 62.0°E, the spot where Luch-5X has been parked since early March to monitor Intelsat 39, stationed at 61.9°E.

The screenshots from the N2YO website show the mutual positions of Luch and Luch-5X (called Luch/Olymp 2 here) when they were at exactly the same longitude today. Luch is orbiting some 50 km below the GEO belt to make the eastward drift possible. In addition to that, its inclination has gradually increased to 1°. It's hard to say if this is a deliberate move or a result of natural perturbations (or a combination of the two). It does raise the question if there are still any plans for Luch to park itself near any other GEO satellites. On the other hand, the slow drift rate may make it possible for Luch to eavesdrop on multiple targets as it passes by them. 

[B. Hendrickx]

After having been on a long and slow eastward drift slightly under the GEO belt since late March, Luch/Olimp has climbed back to geosynchronous altitude and is now stationed at 65.5°E with an inclination of 1.13°. The increasing inclination suggests that mission controllers have stopped making north-south station keeping maneuvers. This is often done with aging geostationary satellites to conserve fuel.

The closest satellites are Amos-4 (an Israeli communications satellite) at 65.0°E and Intelsat 17 at 66.0°E. It is doubtful if these are eavesdropping targets because Luch has usually parked itself much closer to those (at a distance of around 0.1°). One possibility is that Luch is performing joint operations with its sister satellite Luch-5X, stationed at 62°E (right next to Intelsat 39 at 61.9°E). They could, for instance, be used to geolocate ground emitters by simultaneously intercepting uplink signals from one and the same source. But that is just speculation.   

[Star One]

Germany's defence minister has warned his country's satellites are being shadowed by Russian satellites.

Boris Pistorius cited concerns over two Luch/Olymp satellites near Intelsat satellites used by German armed forces and others.

He told a Berlin space conference: "Russia and China have expanded their capabilities for warfare in space rapidly over the past years.

"They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them."

He said Germany's military had already been targeted by jamming attacks.

https://news.sky.com/story/flatplan-13437664

[B. Hendrickx]

Germany's defence minister has warned his country's satellites are being shadowed by Russian satellites.

Boris Pistorius cited concerns over two Luch/Olymp satellites near Intelsat satellites used by German armed forces and others.

Pistorius literally said: "Currently, two Intelsat satellites which are also being used by the German Armed Forces are being tracked by two Russian Luch/Olimp reconnaissance satellites".

Luch/Olimp is at 65.5°E and Luch-5X at 62.0°E (unless something has changed since the release of the latest TLEs two weeks ago).

The closest Intelsats are:
-Intelsat 39 at 61.9°E
-Intelsat 906 at 64.2°E
-Intelsat 17 at 66.0°E

Luch and Luch-5X have typically parked about 0.1° from their eavesdropping targets, so there is little doubt that Intelsat 39 is a target for Luch-5X. It is less obvious that the other two are targets for Luch/Olimp.

I wonder if any of these three Intelsat satellites are publicly known to be used by the armed forces of Germany or any other country. It's worth noting that there is a German military communications satellite in the same area, namely H2Sat/Heinrich Herz at 63.1°E. Did Pistorius misidentify the purported target?

[StraumliBlight]

Ars Technica: High above the equator, Russia is stalking satellites used by NATO armed forces [Sep 25]

Last September, this second Russian eavesdropping satellite maneuvered close to an Intelsat satellite named Intelsat 10-02, coming as close as 1 kilometer (about 3,300 feet) from it in January, according to a CSIS space threat assessment. Notably, Intelsat 10-02 was docked with a commercial servicing spacecraft at the time, and in a twist of irony, was launched by a Russian rocket in 2004.

The same Luch/Olymp satellite then fired its thrusters to begin drifting to another slot thousands of miles away to sidle up next to another Intelsat bird named Intelsat 39.

Intelsat 10-02 and Intelsat 39 each provide C-band and Ku-band services across Europe and the Middle East, including Ukraine.

[B. Hendrickx]

Luch/Olimp left its spot at 65.5°E around October 6 and has since been raising its orbit, as a result of which it is now drifting back westward. It could well be moving to a graveyard orbit after more than 10 years of operations in GEO. The increasing inclination (now 1.26°) was already a sign that controllers had stopped making north-south station keeping maneuvers in order to conserve fuel.

[catdlr]

This is from a previous launch that we don't have a thread on?  so I posted it here.

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/2005100288093614514

Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
·
It appears the Russian Defense Ministry's Olimp-K (Luch, 2014-058A) sat  has finally been retired, after visting 30 separate geostationary locations during its suspected eavesdropping mission. The orbit was  raised to the graveyard from Oct 7 to Oct 22.

[Star One]

This is from a previous launch that we don't have a thread on?  so I posted it here.

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/2005100288093614514

Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
·
It appears the Russian Defense Ministry's Olimp-K (Luch, 2014-058A) sat  has finally been retired, after visting 30 separate geostationary locations during its suspected eavesdropping mission. The orbit was  raised to the graveyard from Oct 7 to Oct 22.

I wonder if they’ll replace it.

[russianhalo117]

This is from a previous launch that we don't have a thread on?  so I posted it here.

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/2005100288093614514

Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
·
It appears the Russian Defense Ministry's Olimp-K (Luch, 2014-058A) sat  has finally been retired, after visting 30 separate geostationary locations during its suspected eavesdropping mission. The orbit was  raised to the graveyard from Oct 7 to Oct 22.

I wonder if they’ll replace it.

There are more unflown spacecraft busses that can be repurposed as additional Luch-5X series. The replacement of the first Olimp-K was done with Luch-5X before the first retired.