Spy on a spy
The Russian spacecraft Kosmos-2542 is performing amazing, never-before-seen maneuvers in orbit. Perhaps there would be nothing sensational in this if it were not for the fact that these maneuvers in a strange way “prevent” the US 245 reconnaissance satellite from performing its tasks.
Michael Thompson of Purdue University noted and tweeted that Cosmos 2542 fired its engines on January 20, 21 and 22 of this year to finally position itself just under 300 kilometers from US 245. Officially, Russia says its satellite is located in orbit for testing. satellite surveillance technology that involves the transfer and placement on board of smaller objects. However, the maneuvers performed by the spacecraft, reminiscent of following an American satellite, give food for thought. Why waste valuable fuel tracking another satellite's orbit, experts ask.
And they immediately try to answer, for example, that the Russian satellite is following US 245 in order to collect data on its mission. By observing the satellite, Kosmos 2542 can determine the capabilities of the US spacecraft's cameras and sensors. An RF probe could even listen to the faint signals from US 245, which could tell the Russians when the US satellite was taking pictures and what data it was processing.
The orbit of the Cosmos 2542 satellite relative to the American ship is such that the Russian satellite observes one side of it during orbital sunrise, and the other during orbital sunset. Probably, this allows a good look at the details of the design. Experts do not exclude that the minimum distance may be only a few kilometers. This distance is sufficient for detailed observation even with a small optical system.
Cosmos 2542 orbit synchronization with US 245 is not the first example of unexpected Russian orbital activity. In August 2014, the Russian satellite Kosmos-2499 performed a series of maneuvers. Four years later, the mysterious attempts of the Cosmos 2519 satellite and its two sub-satellites (Cosmos 2521 and Cosmos 2523) became known. The mysterious evolution of Russian satellites is not limited to low orbit around the Earth - in geostationary orbit, a ship officially associated with the Luch telecommunications group, but in fact, probably a military reconnaissance satellite called Olymp-K, approaches other satellites. in 2018 (including Italian and French - not only military).
The USA 245 satellite was launched at the end of August 2013. The launch took place from Vandenberg, California. This is a large American reconnaissance satellite operating in the infrared and visible light ranges (KN-11 series). The user of NROL-65 is the US National Bureau of Intelligence () which is the operator of many reconnaissance satellites. The satellite operates from an eccentric orbit with a perigee altitude of about 275 km and an apogee altitude of about 1000 km. In turn, the Russian satellite Kosmos 2542 was launched into orbit at the end of November 2019. Russia announced this launch a few days before launch. The rocket delivered two satellites, which were designated Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543. Information about these satellites was very scarce.
There is no legal regulation of this kind of rendezvous in space. Thus, the US and other countries do not have the means to formally protest. There is also no easy way to get rid of unwanted cosmic communication. Several countries are testing weapons capable of destroying satellites, including Russia, which tested a new missile weapon in Earth orbit in the spring of 2020. However, this type of attack risks creating a space debris cloud that could damage other spacecraft. Filming satellites does not seem like a reasonable solution.
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