Russia's Space Move Called 'Provocative,' Unprecedented

A quiet drama just played out 335 miles above Earth. A little-known Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, spent days sneaking up on a US-registered commercial radar satellite that supplies imagery to Ukraine, closing to within a couple hundred meters before abruptly steering away late Sunday, reports the New York Times. The Russian craft, one of six launched in April, began shadowing ICEYE-X36 on Sept. 30, executing repeated maneuvers to hold its close position. Retired Lt. Gen. John Shaw, a former deputy commander of US Space Command, called it "aggressive and provocative behavior," per Ars Technica.

What Russia was doing remains guesswork. While it could have been surveilling the satellite's capabilities, some say Moscow may have been planning to attack the satellite but backed off after President Trump agreed to waive new sanctions against Russia. Finnish company ICEYE says it's tracking the situation and stresses its network is built for resilience. Space analyst Jonathan McDowell notes that this may be the first instance of one spacecraft approaching another without permission, per CNN. Clayton Swope of the Aerospace Security Project says the incident fits a broader pattern of Russia "pushing boundaries" in space, per the Times.