- The company said in a statement Friday that the Russian satellite’s movement “appears to be a deliberate approach toward” the U.S. ICEYE-X36 imaging satellite, according to the company’s tracking data.
Zoom: Friday afternoon, the Russian Cosmos 2612 satellite The satellite was about three miles from ICEYE-X36, LeoLabs said. A day earlier, they were more than 200 miles apart.
- Such behavior is “relatively rare” in low Earth orbit, where assets can travel about 17,000 miles per hour.
What they say: “Although the intent remains unclear, the behavior warrants continued monitoring,” LeoLabs said.
- The Defense Ministry declined to comment on Friday and Saturday.
- Spokespeople for ICEYE, a company founded in Finland, also declined to comment. The satellite is linked to ICEYE US, on several space tracking websites.
Threat level: A Ukrainian official told Axios that the military was working with the Finnish satellite company and using its capabilities, but said it was unclear whether this specific ICEYE-X36 was supporting the country.
- In January, ICEYE announced that it had signed an agreement with “a client of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense” to “expand their space intelligence cooperation” using their satellite constellation.
- The official added that the Ukrainian military was not aware of the satellite movements in recent days. However, she was informed of similar maneuvers last spring and summer.
- In May, a few Russian satellites began maneuvering around ICEYE-X36, according to commercial space tracking data. The Space Force said the Cosmos satellites were positioned near a “Western commercial radar satellite used by Ukraine for imaging intelligence.”
- The US military has repeatedly raised alarm over Russia’s development of anti-satellite weapons.
Between the lines: Aerospace analysts and legal experts said Russia’s willingness to burn the satellite’s fuel and change its altitude, orbital plane and speed to approach ICEYE-X36 is worrying.
- Clayton Swope, a senior space researcher at CSIS, said Friday the distance was essentially “bumper to bumper.”
- “This is all unusual and simply indicates deliberate engagement between Russia and a Western-run satellite that supports Ukraine,” Greg Gillinger, space analyst at Integrity ISR, told Axios.
Context: Aaron Brynildson, a professor of space law at the University of Mississippi, said that while there is no hard legal limit on the distance between satellites, countries generally do not come closer than six miles.
- At a closer distance, if “the target satellite and the tracking satellite were moving at the same time, the likelihood of them crashing into each other increases significantly,” Brynildson said.
Big picture: The development comes as Ukraine faces real-time satellite disruption.
Go further: Zelensky says Musk-owned satellite system still restricted in Ukraine
Barak Ravid contributed to this report.
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