WASHINGTON — The space tracking firm LeoLabs over the past yr tracked two Russian satellites performing rendezvous and proximity operations. These satellites — Resurs-P3 and Cosmos-2562 — conducted maneuvers that supply a glimpse of the potential hazards that U.S. and allied spacecraft could face in low Earth orbit, the corporate said.
Resurs-P3 — a Russian Earth remark satellite — performed a big maneuver in November 2022 after years of inactivity, and approached the Russian military satellite Cosmos-2562, in keeping with a LeoLabs briefing.
The maneuver by Resurs-P3 “placed it in a wholly latest orbit shared by Russian assets with non-publicly disclosed payloads,” said the briefing. “Based on the approaches observed by LeoLabs, it’s highly likely that Cosmos-2562 has an electro-optical payload and has collected high-resolution imagery of Resurs-P3.”
‘Zombie’ satellite
LeoLabs said considered one of the takeaways from its evaluation is that inactive satellites could also be mischaracterized.
“Resurs-P3 was assumed to be an inoperative satellite prior to its maneuver on 11 November 2022,” in keeping with the briefing. “This means that command and control capabilities could also be present on presumed ‘zombie’ satellites.”
Although inactive satellites should not likely dangerous, the corporate said, “it’s necessary to watch suspected dead satellites for potential activity that would pose a risk.”
Resurs-P3, launched in March 2016, was considered nonoperational because of a failure to deploy considered one of its solar panels during launch and early orbit operations. Cosmos-2562 is a Russian military satellite with a classified mission launched in October 2022.
LeoLabs on Oct. 10, 2023, detected a small maneuver by Resurs-P3 that likely was intended to help in disposal operations, and it likely deorbited Oct. 17. Cosmos-2562 is currently in a really low Earth orbit, in keeping with LeoLabs. “If no maneuvers are performed, it would also deorbit soon.”
The corporate applied machine learning techniques to detect and characterize the satellites’ maneuvers. It analyzed each satellites’ activities using its global radar network and cloud data platform.
‘Useful indicator’
LeoLabs estimates that Cosmos-2562 has electro-optical sensors to image other satellites’ payloads, and can also be able to electronic signals collection. “While most sensitive data transmissions are heavily encrypted, by collecting signals an adversary could, at a minimum, infer what frequency band one other satellite is working in for jamming operations,” the corporate said.
“The series of operations observed and analyzed by LeoLabs between Resurs-P3 and Cosmos-2562 are a useful indicator of what potentially adversarial spacecraft are able to.”
LeoLabs’ findings come at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West over space security issues. Slingshot Aerospace, an area data analytics firm, last month unveiled data showing a Russian inspector satellite conducting unusual maneuvers in geostationary orbit.
Based on analysts, Russia for years has been testing technologies for rendezvous and proximity operations in each low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit, and considered one of its goals is to develop co-orbital weapons that will fly alongside other spacecraft.
U.S. Space Force leaders have raised concerns about orbital maneuvers by Russian “inspector” satellites that they imagine could threaten U.S. national security satellites.