What Are the Russians Up To?

It is bad enough that Russian military is operating dangerously close to NATO airspace and neutral Scandinavian airports, and now operating erratically in Syria and crossing over into Turkish airspace, but this questionable behavior is happening in space as well.

Three Russian satellites appear to operate independently and outside routine orbits while one, called Luch, has been orbiting close to U.S. commercial Intelsat satellites and potential spying on their operations. 

Space News reported: 

Many in the space community believe the incident marks one of the first publicly documented times a commercial operator has been subject to this kind of approach by a foreign military satellite. The episode also raises questions about what kind of recourse commercial satellite companies have in these situations.

In addition to the Luch satellite, launched in September 2014, Russia launched Cosmos 2499 (pictured above) in May 2014 and Cosmos 2504 in March 2015. All three spacecraft have worried U.S. space and military officials who believe the Russians are testing anti-satellite technology. 

Of course, as I have noted before, the US Air Force is not helpless. The X37B unmanned space shuttle, which can stay in orbit for more than a year at a time, appears to be our not-so-secret weapon that can most likely capture and destroy worrisome satellites. Hence, we appear to be on the brink of a new war arena and, like Ukraine and Syria, Russia is spoiling for a fight.

Update: The Russians are now attempting to explain the mysterious Luch satellite, stating it is

...simply a relay satellite, sending signals from spacecraft to Earth, for example from the International Space Station — we have communications problems there — and from one satellite to another.

I am not convinced.

The European Space Agency's PRIDE

The European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) space shuttle/spaceplane, part of its Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator for Europe (PRIDE), was on display last week at the Paris Air and Space Show.  Showing the wear of a February test (see above), the spaceplane represents ESA's answer to the U.S. Air Force's X37B unmanned space shuttle, though with more science and less intrigue. 

Under PRIDE, ESA's is attempting to design a space vehicle that can provide all of the following:  

- Reusable launchers stages (lower and upper),

- Robotic exploration (for example, sample return from Mars or asteroid),

- Servicing of orbital infrastructures (for example, International Space Station),

- Servicing of future generation satellites (for example, in-orbit refuelling or disposal),

- Microgravity experiments (for example, optimum time/cost ratio),

- Earth sciences (for example, high-altitude atmospheric research), and

- Earth observation (for example, crisis monitoring).

That is quite a list.  And, of course, these type of spaceplane and reusable rockets are the focus of multiple projects around the world.  For instance, in addition to SpaceX's Falcon, earlier this month the European Airbus Defence and Space unveiled the Advanced Expendable Launcher with Innovative engine Economy (Adeline), though it will not be ready until 2025-2030. And Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is developing the reusable rocket New Shepard (shown below). 

So the race is on and future missions and governments funding those missions will be the winners. 

60 Minutes: Space Wars

If you missed the 60 Minutes piece last Sunday on the budding space war between the United States, China, and Russia, then you missed a significant story on how Earthbound battles may draw funding and energy away from a space program that looks beyond Earth.

Most of the country's concerns involved the Chinese capabilities to reach the outermost US defense satellites, but the Russians were mentioned as well since one of their recent satellites seems to have the ability to change orbit and trail other satellites. It appears space is now fair game for all.

Of course, the U.S. is not without its own arsenal to track and protect satellites, from the Starfire Optical Range in Albuquerque, a laser that tracks satellite movement, to the Air Force's X37B unmanned space shuttle. And while China has worried the space community with a satellite kill (and troublesome debris) a few years back, the program noted that the U.S. had an earlier satellite kill and a second one more recently. Hence, we are not innocents here.

If the space race becomes a local war we all lose and go nowhere. Let's hope the goal becomes Mars instead. As with the lunar race, we need healthy competition that takes us to new places. Carl Sagan has already warned us about the lonely Pale Blue Dot.