Breaking Defense
WASHINGTON — Russia’s newest satellite in its low Earth orbit (LEO) Cosmos series is in orbit near an unnamed US government satellite, according to US Space Command — further stoking suspicions that the Cosmos satellites are co-orbital anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons rather than simply neighborhood watch birds as Moscow claims.
“U.S. Space Command can confirm Russia’s recent launch put a Russian satellite into an orbit near a U.S. government satellite. Russia continues to research, develop, test, and deploy a suite of counterspace systems that threaten the safety and the stability of the domain, so consistent with all on-orbit objects, USSPACECOM will continue to monitor for concerning behavior or activity related to this launch,” the SPACECOM spokesperson told Breaking Defense today.
While SPACECOM did not name the US satellite being shadowed, the statement came following reports from independent astronomers that the new Cosmos 2588, launched May 23, was put into a coplanar orbit with USA 338. USA 338 is thought by experts to be one of the NRO’s KH-series electro-optical spy satellites, known as the Crystal constellation.
