General. John “Jay” Raymond, the newly designated leader of the fledgling U.S. Space Force said that the Russian spacecraft has come within 100 miles of the American spy satellite, adding that concerns over the matter have been raised with Moscow through diplomatic channels, according to TIME Magazine’s W. J. Hennigan.
“This is unusual and disturbing behavior and has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space,” Raymond said. “The United States finds these recent activities to be concerning and do not reflect the behavior of a responsible spacefaring nation.”
According to General Raymond, shortly after the USA 245 – a satellite the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) operates – was launched into orbit in November last year, a Russian spacecraft – Kosmos 2542 – began slowly making its way over to the U.S. spy satellite, getting as close as 100 miles from it.
What turned out to be really unusual was that the Kosmos 2542 seemed to give birth to another satellite, reports CNBC. By the middle of January, Kosmos 2542 and Kosmos 2543 had moved in orbit and were closing in on USA 245. Because of the nature of their orbits, the Russian satellites were able to see multiple sides of the USA 245.
Believe it or not, but this movement was discovered not by trained military technicians, but by an amateur spacecraft tracker, reports Business Insider. The unusual movement of the Kosmos 2542 was spotted by Michael Thompson, a satellite and spacecraft enthusiast, who wrote on Twitter that “this is all circumstantial evidence, but there are a hell of a lot of circumstances that make it look like a known Russian inspection satellite is currently inspecting a known US spy satellite.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said in December that a maneuver by the satellites — in which one satellite “birthed” another resulting in two satellites — was an experiment to assess the “technical condition of domestic satellites,” according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Raymond called out Russia for developing technologies that could harm U.S. systems in space, saying the recent maneuvers could “create a dangerous situation in space. The United States finds these recent activities to be concerning and do not reflect the behavior of a responsible spacefaring nation,” Raymond said.
