‘Whatever Russia is testing, it’s sophisticated’: 2 Russian satellites get within 10 feet of each other in orbit
Two Russian spacecraft simply demonstrated a really specific set of orbital expertise.
The satellitesgenerally known as COSMOS 2581 and COSMOS 2583, acquired within simply 10 feet (3 meters) or so of each other on April 28, in response to COMSPOC, a Pennsylvania-based (*10*) software program firm.
“This wasn’t a coincidental pass — COSMOS 2583 performed several fine maneuvers to maintain this tight configuration,” COMSPOC wrote in a May 1 post onwhich featured an animation of the rendezvous.
🛰️Russian satellites multi-object proximity occasion in LEORadar monitoring knowledge through @LeoLabs_Space, processed by means of COMSPOC SSA Suite.This week we noticed a fancy proximity occasion involving Russian satellites: COSMOS 2581, 2582, 2583, and Object F (a subsatellite launched by… pic.twitter.com/3nDkcOmTuDMay 1, 2026
The two satellites and a 3rd one, COSMOS 2582, launched to low earth orbit in February 2025 atop a Soyuz rocket. According to COMSPOC, all three of them had been concerned in the current rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), as was “Object F,” a subsatellite previously deployed by COSMOS 2583.
During the 10-foot shut strategy, “COSMOS 2582 trailed the formation at sub-100 km range, while Object F passed within 15 km of 2582 and within 10 km of 2581 — neither maneuvered,” wrote COMPSOC, which analyzed radar monitoring knowledge gathered by the California firm LeoLabs.
“For context: in late 2025 to now, we tracked these same COSMOS satellites performing 3-object RPO,” COMSPOC added in the May 1 put up. “Whatever Russia is testing, it’s sophisticated.”
Such subtle orbital maneuvering is not precisely stunning; we have seen comparable issues from Russia earlier than. For instance, in response to outdoors observers, the nation has operated a number of “satellite inspector,” together with COSMOS 2542, which made a detailed strategy to a US spy satellite tv for pc in 2020.
The other main area powers have such capabilities as effectively. (*2*) and chinese satellites have additionally been noticed testing other nations’ spacecraft excessive above Earth.
