Mysterious Russian satellite displaying "very abnormal behaviour" raises alarm in US state Dept

[sunonmars]

Link to tweet

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45194333

A mysterious Russian satellite displaying "very abnormal behaviour" has raised alarm in the US, according to a State Department official.

"We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it," said assistant secretary Yleem Poblete at a conference in Switzerland on 14 August.

She voiced fears that it was impossible to say if the object may be a weapon.

Russia has dismissed the comments as "unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions".

The satellite in question was launched in October last year.

"[The satellite's] behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities," Ms Poblete told the conference on disarmament in Switzerland.

"Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development," she added, citing recent comments made by the commander of Russia's Space Forces, who said adopting "new prototypes of weapons" was a key objective for the force.

Ms Poblete said that the US had "serious concerns" that Russia was developing anti-satellite weapons.

Alexander Deynko, a senior Russian diplomat, told the Reuters news agency that the comments were "the same unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions, on suppositions and so on".

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Read on.

[CatMor]

1. They modeled the satellite after trump.

[global1]

2. A Product Of Putin's "Space Force".....nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Could be part of a "hacking" the election op, it is there with the consent of Rump, BTW

[ffr]

4. Brought to you by you're average яed-neck яube

[2naSalit]

17. Time for them to go home to ruskieland then.

[Achilleaze]

5. republican Dirty Donny* has some friends with ugly intentions toward America

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[3Hotdogs]

6. I read that it is sending out flashes of red light. Each time it flashes,

the pod in back of Gropenfuhrer's neck flashes red.

Coincidence: I think not.

[2naSalit]

18. LOL!!

[PearliePoo2]

7. Nice satellite you've got there, Vlad. Be a shame if something happened to it..

[jcgoldie]

8. dont worry about that

...it just grabs signals from Trump's new soccer ball.

[Brother Buzz]

9. OMG, quick, get the Laser Guns

Pew, pew, pew

[Hekate]

10. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

[ProudLib72]

11. Evidently the Rump does

Making enemies of erstwhile allies is all he seems capable of.

[C_U_L8R]

12. Trump, your intergalactic Uber has arrived

please be ready to depart immediately

[herding cats]

13. Is this one of the trio of Kosmos satellites?

If so, the first has been up there since 2013 and the last went up in 2015 if I recall correctly. They periodically go dormant then start up again.

The Daily Beast did an article about them in late Spring of 2017.

[bigtree]

14. hard sell for Trump's space force

...it will turn out to be a sad farce.

[BlueWI]

15. Who is left in this administration to be alarmed??

Seems like the major players schemed to make this potential aggression more likely.

The rest of us have to stand and be counted.

[spanone]

16. vlad is giving credence to don's space-whatever

[2naSalit]

19. +1