Is Russia Back in the Satellite Hunting Game?

Since the early days of the Cold War both the USSR and the US engaged in efforts to develop anti-satellite weapons. While the Soviets abandoned there anti-satellite program in the mid-1980s the launch of a mysterious rocket, and the strange orbital motions of its payload are making observers nervous that Russia has jumped back into the space warfare game.

On May 23, 2014 Russia launched its Kosmos 2499 satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrom in northwestern Russia. While the launch of a satellite isn’t really a cause for concern, the puzzling thing about Kosmos 2499 is that it wasn’t listed on the launch’s manifest. In fact, Kosmos 2499 was spirited into the atmosphere under the concealment of three other disclosed military satellites.

Initially, observers at NORAD were under the impression that the fourth module aboard the May launch was nothing more than a piece of debris generated during the separation of the triumvirate of satellites from their booster. Then, all of a sudden that piece of debris made an unmistakably maneuvered move.

Alarm bells were ringing.

Between late spring and the onset of winter observers have watched Kosmos make a number of orchestrated maneuvers and in recent reports 2499 has been realigning itself quite precisely. According to Russianspaceweb, reports have surfaced that Kosmos-2499 is gently narrowing the gap between it and its upper-stage, Briz-KM, to .76km (2493ft).

Though still relatively far apart in terrestrial terms, the clandestine Kosmos object is demonstrating a sophistication of maneuverability that’s leading many experts to categorize the craft as “experimental” and possibly sinister in its design.

In an interview with FT Patricia Lewis, an International Security Research Director at Chatham House, noted that “Whatever it is, [Kosmos 2499] looks experimental … It could have a number of functions, some civilian and some military. One possibility is for some kind of grabber bar. Another would be kinetic pellets which shoot out at another satellite. Or possibly there could be a satellite-to-satellite cyber attack or jamming.”

Russia’s mysterious orbiter might be completely benign, and it might even be on a mission to test technology that could be used in future space junk clearing missions. However, the secrecy surrounding the craft’s launch has piqued the interest of keen space observers. Given the fact that Russia isn’t the only nation that’s feeling out the idea of advancing a secretive, if not taboo, space warfare doctrine, I can only imagine that some of last century’s tit-for-tat boogey men are fueling international fears.

I, for one, hope this is just wild speculation, and that both the US, China and Russia lay off any ambitions for space-based weapons. Militarizing space is an egregiously nearsighted idea that would likely limit our inherent nature as explorers.

Image Courtesy of RussinaSpaceWeb & Wikipedia