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Three's a party: US, China, and now Russia are on the prowl in GEO

Ars Technica·Stephen Clark·17 days ago
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Instead of running silent and deep, most satellites easily stand out against the blackness of space. This visualization from COMSPOC shows the US Space Force's USA-325 satellite flying near Russia's Kosmos 2589 satellite in geosynchronous orbit May 1. Credit: COMSPOC The world’s leading space powers desperately want to know what the others are up to high above the equator. For more than a decade, the US military has operated a fleet of “inspector” satellites designed to sidle up to other spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit and take pictures. China started launching its satellites for a similar mission in 2018. Ars has written about these activities in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) before, but the last few months have seen a couple of interesting developments. First, Russia has now joined the fray with the recent arrival of its own suspected inspector (or attack) satellite in GEO.…

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