Russia Allegedly Spying on US Military After Launching 14F150 Nivelir Spacecraft as Part of Kosmos-2558 Mission

Russia launches spacecraft 14F150 Nivelir into orbit as part of the Kosmos-2558 mission. Given its present trajectory, it may soon be near what is thought to be the spy satellite USA-326.

Unfounded rumors about the asset's planned usage as an "inspector" satellite to covertly spy on nearby spacecraft have circulated online since the launch. This would be consistent with Russia's available on-orbit anti-satellite weapons capabilities and advances.

Russian Spacecraft Allegedly Tried to Spy US Satellites

Unfounded rumors about the asset's planned usage as an "inspector" satellite to covertly spy on nearby spacecraft have circulated online since the launch.

Marco Langbroek, an astrodynamics professor at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands who watched the two spacecraft' orbital paths, mentioned that the American satellite was traveling above the Russian spaceport of Plesetsk when the Russian satellite was launched.

In an interview with Gizmodo, Langbroek said the critical difference between the two orbits is a relatively small difference of a few tens of kilometers in orbital altitude.

This was, according to him, a "very clear indication."

He also pointed out that the American satellite is in a 97.4-degree inclined Sun-synchronous orbit. Still, the Russian satellite is in a 97.25-degree inclined orbit.

The Russian spacecraft may alter its orbit in the coming days to get even closer to the American satellite, Langbroek noted.

Additionally, he asserted that a Russian satellite of this type had previously been used to track satellites in orbit.

Russian Spacecraft's Sensor System

According to The Drive, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell claimed that the satellite is not a standard observation satellite meant to capture pictures of the earth.

He added that the Russian spacecraft has a sensor system built to watch other spacecraft.

The aim of USA-326, per The Drive, may clarify why Russia would want to send Kosmos-2558 to spy on it.

USA-326, a top-secret national security mission managed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in coordination with SpaceX, was launched by that company's Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in February of this year. The codename for this mission was NROL-87.

NROL-87 was developed, built, and is now being managed by the NRO to assist its "overhead reconnaissance mission," which is primarily focused on maintaining national security, according to a statement made by the NRO in a press release published following the inaugural launch.

Interesting Engineering also noted that the United States has occasionally been both the culprit and the victim of space stalking in the past. In 2020, USA 245, an electro-optical espionage satellite in low Earth orbit, was being tracked by Kosmos 2542, a second Russian spacecraft.

Over the next few days, Langbroek will watch the two spacecraft's orbits to see whether they come near Earth.

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