A mysterious Russian satellite that spent five months parked between two Intelsat satellites left that location in late September and has now cozied up to a third Intelsat satellite.
The Russian satellite, alternatively known as Luch or Olymp, launched in September 2014 and seven months later moved to a position directly between the Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 901 satellites, which are located within half a degree of one another in geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator.
But in late September, the satellite moved again, according to an analysis published Oct. 5 by Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation.
[…] While the Russian satellite’s mission is not clear, sources said, its maneuvers have been the subject of classified meetings within the Defense Department and captured the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. One U.S. government official said options are being developed for addressing these types of situations.
Odd. At time of posting, the Intelsat website is down.
h/t Melinda
related: http://spacenews.com/intelsat-chief-financial-officer-resigns/
It’s probably nothing…
McDonnell gets fired, and will become chief financial officer at healthcare service provider Quintiles of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Quintiles provides security and maintenance of my heart monitor and pacemaker.
That is just great,
the damn North Koreans and Russians will be pushing the buttons by remote control on my defibrillator.
Here heart boy,,
have another frigging Shock…. Yeowww…
Just wait until they figure out that their Open Border policy over the last forty years has populated their entire country with Russians, Chinese, Iranians etcetera, etcetera.
And not just with the nice fuzzy ones “looking for a better life” – WA Wa wa
It could be truthfully said that they are all looking for a better life. The problem lies in their ideas of what is “better.”
This is from Wikipedia – note the possibility of a SIGINT function. We did some work on Luch 4 as it was known to us, here in Montreal.
During a 2013 a military communication satellite was identified as both Luch and Olymp, and later named Olymp-K, was manifested to fly on the Proton-M.[19] It launched successfully on a Proton-M/Briz-M on September 28, 2014. It is known to be based on the Yamal platform, to be designed for a 15 year life on GEO, to have a laser communications terminal, to use Hall thrusters and is considered to also have a SIGINT payload.[20
On 9 October 2015, Spacenews.com reported[22] that in April 2015, Olymp-K had moved to within 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of the Intelsat communications spacecraft Intelsat 901 and the nearby Intelsat 7, causing concerns of a safety-of-flight incident. Attempts by Intelsat to contact the Russian satellite’s operators were not successful, and no reason for the satellite’s movement was given by the Russian government. The move sparked classified meetings within the Department of Defense.
The Luch-4 is speculated to have mutated into the Yenisey A1.[21] It will be mostly a demonstration spacecraft for new technologies, particularly large diameter unfurlable antenna reflectors and use of electric propulsion for orbit raising maneuvers.[21]
Pooty-Poot taking over Eastern Europe, the ME, the Arctic, and now the heavens. The stones on this guy. #RESETINDEED
Can anyone here provide some speculation as to what the Russians are up to with this?
Well if the government will not enforce the borders, why would they care about security of communications,military or otherwise?
Hillary was only following protocol.
“Tell Validimar I will have more “flexibility” after the election”.
Expect a move by Putin in Europe or Asia Major.
Putin didn’t draft those 150,000 new Russian soldiers on October 3rd for no reason and he’ll be using Iranian/Hizb’allah ground forces in the Middle East with Russian air support.
If they’re parking a satellite directly between two communications satellites, it’s pretty clear that they’re trying to intercept communications between those satellites. What matters is what kind of communications those satellites are carrying.
It could also just be a “look what we can do with our satellites” head fake.
So how is this related to this satellite maneuvering? In other words, what can be gained by it?
Daniel
Is it likely (or even possible) that they are placing something that can disable the satellite?
Satellites are for over-the-horizon communications.
U.S. military transmits to Sat, Sat acts as relay between units to base/Pentagon, Pentagon talks back through same relay channel.
Yes, they are encrypted burst coms, but we don’t know Russia’s abilities to capture and decrypt.
My guess is the U.S. has been very sloppy all around and the administration is riddled with traitors so Russia is likely learning things like order of battle and even where U.S. tactical nukes are in the field.
“In other words, what can be gained by it?”
If two satellites are communicating by tight-beam radio or better yet by laser, the only way to eavesdrop is to stick a receiver in between them. Then you can hear what they’re saying.
The Russians just stuck a big fat ear next to the keyhole. They probably didn’t get any uesable intel, because even the most incompetent moron knows to shut up when he can SEE somebody listening.
This does not mean they didn’t get what they wanted. Because now the Americans are freaking out and having meetings. That could be advantageous to Vlad baby, or it might be mere entertainment. Kick the ant hill, watch the little ants run.
Otherwise known as kicking sand in Obama’s face. A worthwhile endeavor all on it’s own, if you’re Vlad.
Or else the Russians can’t steer their cold-war era piece of sh1t anymore, that’s an outside possibility.
Russia can shoot Sats down if they want to.
The MIG25 still holds the recognized absolute altitude record for a jet aircraft under its own power.(and they still have a small number of them in service for who knows what reason)
Fitted with a AA-9 or maybe even a R-77 missile(retrofit), a MIG25 could shoot down satellites.
Is a missile hit on a satellite from a mig is limited to low orbit sats, or also geosynchronous satellites which are 25,000 miles away?
“Or else the Russians can’t steer their cold-war era piece of sh1t anymore, that’s an outside possibility.”
from story: The Russian satellite, alternatively known as Luch or Olymp, launched in September 2014
My view is that the Cold War never ended. Is that your view too?
25,000 miles is a very long distance within the earth’s atmosphere.
Once a missile clears the atmosphere and is in space, however, atmospheric drag and the effects of gravity are severely reduced and a missile can go much farther.
This was Sept. 13, 1985. I’m guessing technology has advanced since then.
http://www.livescience.com/4832-satellite-22-years.html
Russia readies for war while the empty chair is golfing
It’s pearl harbour for the 21century
It didn’t, but I’m more whistling past the graveyard than anything else. Canada couldn’t put a sat in geosynchronous orbit if the entire nation depended on it. Kind of a stupid spot to be in, in this day and age.
Oz, you have the right concept but you would need a lot more rocket propellant to get to orbit, the satellites in the article are 36,000kms high. The missiles you refer are air to air missiles with a 60 mile range in the horizontal plane.
In the ’80s the USAF successfully tested a missile that used a stripped down F15 as the launch platform. IIRC the missile weighed over 2,500lbs and had three stages of rockets.
Phantom said…”Canada couldn’t put a sat in geosynchronous orbit if the entire nation depended on it. Kind of a stupid spot to be in, in this day and age.”
True. Very true. However, both us and the USA can put airheads in charge. I wonder when the military is going to revolt in the good old USA?
That is why I said the MIG25, which holds the recognized absolute altitude record for a jet aircraft under its own power, could be the launch platform(missile ferry) to aid the missile in breaking free from the atmosphere and hit a target in space.
Then I said that once the missile attains freedom from the earth’s atmosphere/orbit(SPACE) that it could easily fly to an orbiting Sat and destroy it because it would have overcome most resistance.
30 years advancement in technology from the U.S. demonstration in 1985 is quite likely, and Russia has shown us that they have been preparing for war.
Oh, and don’t forget that the MIG25 made that altitude record under it’s own power. Nothing stopping the Russians from putting mission-specific rocket boosters on the MIG25 itself to get the job done.
They only need to punch holes in the satellite net, they don’t have to shoot all of them down.
How many replacement intelsats with rockets to put them in space do you think the U.S. has? My guess is *not many*.
Cat and mouse game going on in space. It was inevitable. Don’t forget this:
http://www.space.com/29221-x37b-military-space-plane-fourth-mission.html
Part of it is cat-and-mouse. A lot of information can be gained just by watching people’s behavior while the satellite is maneuvering. Who in particular is getting concerned? Which military branch or spy agency is having a sudden flurry of meetings? What frequencies suddenly stop transmitting as the satellite approaches its target orbit? Do the other satellites maneuver?
A big geosynchronous satellite has to have high reliability. All the GEO sats have multiply redundant computer systems and multiple antennae across several frequency bands. That makes the satellite very expensive, which means the launch has to be very reliable, further adding to the cost. The expense means it makes sense to piggyback other payloads, whether nanosatellites or non-mission-critical technology demonstrators (NASA refers to this as getting new technology to Technology Readiness Level 9). This Russian one is apparently equipped with some technology demonstration packages, notably electric propulsion and a large deployable radio reflector. If the satellite was solely for the purpose of the technology demonstration, then the Russians would have gotten the European Space Agency or NASA or the Chinese space agency to help out with the cost in exchange for data.
No mention is made of the size of the deployable antenna reflector, but it must be considerably bigger than anything currently in use, otherwise who cares?