Today, at the @UN Security Council meeting on a resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space & outer space security, Robert Wood, U.S. representative in the UN, highlighted Russia's actions in space & how the U.S. will continue to demonstrate safe space activities.
https://twitter.com/us_spacecom/status/1792694415905214850QuoteToday, at the @UN Security Council meeting on a resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space & outer space security, Robert Wood, U.S. representative in the UN, highlighted Russia's actions in space & how the U.S. will continue to demonstrate safe space activities.Interesting he said the following: "Just last week, on May 16, Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that the United States assesses is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites."
Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite. Russia's May 16 launch follows prior Russian satellite launches likely of counterspace systems to low Earth orbit in 2019 and 2022.
There is a possibility that Kosmos-2576 is not the fourth 14F150 satellite, but another one with the index 14F168. This was mentioned in a court document related to 14F150. See a post in the Nivelir thread:https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=50125.0(Reply 15)This could potentially be a heavier and more capable version of 14F150, which might also explain why a heavier launch vehicle was used this time than the Soyuz-2.1v/Volga. But all that is, of course, highly speculative.
COSMOS 2576 orbit, no maneuver yet, keep watching https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/table.php?CATNR=59773
But now, a little push
U.S. Space Command ready for potential Russian satellite attack, general saysWASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command is preparing for the possibility of Russia targeting American satellites in orbit, according to the command’s top general. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, commented on recent reports indicating that Russia has deployed “co-planar” spacecraft positioned to monitor U.S. satellites.Speaking June 24 at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Whiting said Russia’s launch of its Cosmos 2576 satellite in low Earth orbit on May 16 — which the Pentagon assessed to be a counter-space weapon — was “put on orbit in an operational capacity.”“And when you look at where they put the satellite, in what we call co-planar to a national security satellite, that doesn’t seem to be accidental,” said Whiting.Co-planar deployment refers to the positioning of satellites on the same geometric plane in space. When Russia deploys “co-planar” spacecraft, it means they are placing their satellite in an orbit that is aligned with the orbit of a U.S. satellite. This alignment allows the Russian spacecraft to monitor, track, and potentially interfere with a U.S. satellite because they are moving along the same path or plane in space. Whiting noted that this deployment came as no surprise. “We’ve been tracking objects on orbit for decades,” he said. “We can look at those orbital parameters and we can compare that launch to launches that the Russians did in 2017, 2019 and 2022 that look like this class of counter-space weapon that they’ve tested previously, and that now appears that they’ve put on orbit in an operational capacity.”U.S. Space Command is taking these activities seriously and actively rehearsing a response to potential attacks on U.S. space assets, Whiting said.....
He told Breaking Defense that both Cosmos 2558 and Cosmos 2576 are still co-planar with USA 326 and USA 314 respectively, and that their orbital parameters seem to have been chosen deliberately to enable them to keep shadowing the US satellites over time.“To me, staying in the same orbital plane for 2+ years does not indicate they are ‘inspector satellites’ — what more is there to ‘inspect’ after 2+ years? Rather, I strongly suspect they are sleeping interceptors, to be activated when necessary,” he added.
As of May 30th KOSMOS-2576 was still following USA-314.
It appeared to be tumbling, but more seasoned satellite observers will have to confirm or deny this.
