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President Trump\u2019s relationship with Russia has factored a good bit into the impeachment trial that\u2019s captivated Washington DC and the national press in recent days. But for everyone loudly decrying the perception that the leader of the free world may be cozying up to Russia \u2014 and the effect that may or may not have had on the 2016 election \u2014 it doesn\u2019t seem to have shaken the country from its old Cold War ways. To wit: There\u2019s starting to be some concern that a mysterious Russian satellite is currently orbiting the earth for one reason \u2014 to spy on our own spy satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Thompson, a graduate teaching assistant at Purdue University for whom satellites are something of a specialty, has been tweeting about how people need to keep an eye on this. And why that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making this more intriguing is the fact that this is all being done pretty much in the open. There aren\u2019t any big secrets involved here really, as there\u2019s plenty of publicly available data (tracked by amateur satellite sleuths) who follow the 2,200 or so active satellites from around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened is that from the time the satellite Cosmos 2542 launched in November through January, it didn\u2019t really get too close to the KH-11 US reconnaissance satellite. Something changed a few weeks ago, though. Not only did Russia\u2019s probe get strangely closer, but it also apparently changed up its orbital pattern to basically match the orbit of our satellite that\u2019s been in space since late 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One reason for the concern is that at that range it should be able to capture some detailed photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the range oscillates, the relative orbit is phased such that the closest distance is when the satellites are in sunlight (i.e. visible to optical observation) and the furthest distance is when both satellites are in eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson and others have theorized that the value of spying on a satellite like this is arguably marginal. As noted, our probes in space aren\u2019t really hidden and many of the technologies and features are pretty public. So what other possibilities could there be? Give it a second \u2026 one will come to you \u2026 if you guessed \u201cuse as a weapon,\u201d well, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least one expert has theorized that maneuvers like this could be, if not a prelude to some kind of conflict, then at least a practice run for that eventuality. Russian spacecraft expert Anatoly Zak told The Daily Beast that tailing a US spy satellite in this fashion starts to look pretty ominous when you consider the US satellite in question doesn\u2019t seem to have any defense mechanism. You could maybe fit satellites like Russia\u2019s with explosives, Zak said, in which case if it got too close to ours \u201cit probably can do some harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n