US: Russia Has Launched an Anti-Satellite Weapon
The mysterious object appears to be shadowing a US spy satellite.
By Ryan Whitwam May 22, 2024
The US government has accused Russia of launching a new anti-satellite weapon. The object, which Russia has refused to positively identify, appears to be operating in space near an important US satellite. Independent sky watchers can confirm Russia's new satellite is suspiciously close to the US asset, but no one outside of Russia's Defense Ministry can say what exactly it's doing up there.
The mysterious satellite launched into low Earth orbit on May 16. At a recent Pentagon briefing, Major General Patrick Ryder was asked about the Russian spacecraft by a US ambassador. Ryder confirmed the government was monitoring the object and believes it to be an anti-satellite weapon.
Russian Inspector Satellite Gets Up Close and Personal with a Spacecraft in Orbit by Sharmila Kuthunur
June 3, 2024
Introduction:
(Space.com) A Russian military satellite named Luch-2 was found closely approaching a geostationary satellite last month, a maneuver that follows in the footsteps of its predecessor that was found eavesdropping on other nations' satellites on multiple occasions since 2014.
Aldoria, a French startup that tracks satellites in orbit using a network of ground-based telescopes, alerted satellite operators in May 2024 that it had detected "a sudden close approach" by the Russian Luch-2 to a satellite positioned in geostationary orbit. The maneuver by Luch-2 occurred on April 12, 2024 about 22,232 miles (35,780 kilometers) from Earth's surface, the company said in a statement.
Aldoria did not disclose what satellite Luch-2 might have been spying on or precisely how close it approached the object. The minimum distance between the two objects was 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), while today (June 3) they are about 12 to 30 miles apart (20 to 50 kilometers), Saloua Moutaoufik, Aldoria's public relations manager, told Space.com in an email.
The news of this close approach comes shortly after U.S. intelligence officials and the Pentagon accused Russia of attempting to militarize space by deploying a different military inspector satellite into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite.
The Russian satellite, Cosmos 2576, "is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit," U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood said on May 20 during a U.N. Security Council meeting. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has denied the Pentagon's claims as fake news.
Interview: Joe Cirincione on Golden Dome and the Long-Running U.S. Missile Defense Debacle
by John Mecklin
May 22, 2025
Introduction:
(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) After President Trump announced the start of a so-called Golden Dome missile defense project early this week, major press coverage was largely matter-of-fact and relatively unperturbed. Some news reports included quotes from experts who questioned the administration’s estimates of the cost and time required to complete the enormously complex and ambitious project. But the administration’s basic assertions—that all of the United States could be protected against missile attack through a system of space-based sensing and attack satellites that could be completed before the end of Trump’s term in office at a cost of “only” $175 billion—were generally accorded a remarkable degree of deference, given the long history of extraordinarily expensive US missile defense failures.
To provide some historical depth and educated skepticism to the Golden Dome debate, I talked this week with Joe Cirincione, a longtime national security and nuclear policy analyst who has followed US missile defense efforts for decades. The need for serious and fundamental questioning of the Golden Dome project became clearer and clearer, the longer we talked.
(See link below for interview)
Additional extract:
Cirincione: Sure. I think national missile defense is the longest-running scam in the history of the Department of Defense. And what the Trump administration has now done is to revive an old, discredited idea, pump it full of new expectations, and market it as an instant fix to America’s vulnerability to ballistic missiles. This, of course, is nonsense.
Trump claims it’s only going to cost $175 billion, and it’ll be all done by the end of his term. Which is insane. You probably won’t even get the architecture of the system settled by the end of his administration.
As far as I am concern the golden dome should be star wars + iron dome. A space platform should be launched into space or even a military space -station that is stafffed. Maybe 2-3 of them. This would allow us to have a space based ability to destroy icbm's carrying nukes. We're going to want the ability to take down hundreds if not thousands of these if we wish to have a solid chance in a nuclear war. Doing so in space allows for us to remove ourselves from the toxic fall out of a nuclear war. Russia and china isn't going to have this if we do this and this will put us at a huge advantage.
Each of our major cities like New york, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver Seattle, La, san fransico, etc should have a ground based iron dome or even upwards of 10.
It'll cost half a trillion dollars but will save tens of millions of American lives and save tens of trillions in the case of nuclear war. Anything less is a joke. If we're going to move forward then we better make it able to provide a solid defense against nuclear war.
If it is going to be this tiny dozen group of iron domes mainly for shooting down missiles or airplanes then I think it'll still be a good idea for a future war that effects our homeland but isn't nearly enough to prevent our real problem in a war against russia or china.
One of the reasons why a large portion of this golden dome needs to be space based is nuclear fall out. We need to destroy these icbm's in space or at the further point that is possible from human life. Any golden dome that doesn't have literally dozens of laser or space capable missile plateforms in order to do so is a joke for a nuclear shield. A nuclear shield is the main reason for such a project.
I could see America building the defensive ability in having an iron dome for our cities for a future war but it isn't worthy of the press this is getting. lol
Russia and China Demonstrate Advanced Orbital Maneuvering, Prompting Further Calls for Anti-Satellite Weapons
US Space Command has previously requested further development of orbital warfare capabilities.
By Jon Martindale October 22, 2025 https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/r ... ng-further
Describing the latest Russian and Chinese satellite orbital maneuvering as "sophisticated," researchers and analysts are placing greater emphasis on the US developing anti-satellite capabilities—and even space-based weaponry. This echoes earlier calls from US Space Command, which suggested that more capable space-based warfighting abilities were of the utmost importance.
Sticking weapons in space feels very mid-20th-century sci-fi, but as reusable rockets have decreased the costs of putting material into orbit and global satellite networks become ever more integrated in modern logistics and battlefield control, being able to target your opponent's satellites becomes more critical. Although the risk of space debris for "disabling" anything in orbit is exceptionally high, that kind of consideration may come second in a hot conflict.
