Russia's Roskosmos Launches Radar-Observation Satellite To Spy On Ukraine's Military Facilities

Sputnik: Russia's New Top-Notch Eye in the Sky to Spy on Kiev's Military Facilities - Source 

Satellite reconnaissance provides high-quality data that can be used for various purposes. Data collected this way can be used to track the movement of troops, ships, and aircraft, and to monitor the activities of other countries. 

A new Russian radar satellite will be able to conduct reconnaissance against Ukrainian military facilities as often as twice a day, a source told Sputnik.  

"The new Kondor-FKA radar satellite, which was launched into orbit on Saturday, will be used for reconnaissance of Ukrainian military installations. It will pass over Ukraine on average twice a day and is capable of detecting military objects in radar range with a resolution of one meter," a source said.  

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Update #1: Roskosmos launches radar-observation satellite (Russian Space Web)

Update #2: Russia takes Kondor-FKA No. 1 civilian radar observation satellite to orbit (TASS)  

WNU Editor: I suspect this satellite is already providing intelligence data.

A Mysterious Russian Satellite Broke Apart Early Last Month Generating A Cloud Of Debris

#18SDS has confirmed the breakup of COSMOS 2499 (#39765, 2014-028E) - occurred Jan 4, 2023 at appx 0357 UTC. Tracking 85 associated pieces at est 1169 km altitude - analysis ongoing. #spacedebris #space @SpaceTrackOrg @US_SpaceCom @ussfspoc

— 18th Space Defense Squadron (@18thSDS) February 7, 2023

Space.com: Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris 

Kosmos 2499 broke apart in early January, according to the U.S. Space Force. 

A mysterious Russian satellite broke apart early last month, creating a cloud of debris that could linger in Earth orbit for a while. 

The Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on the night of Jan. 3, according to the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron (18th SDS), which tracks human-made objects in orbit. 

The breakup event generated at least 85 pieces of trackable debris, 18th SDS said via Twitter on Monday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 6). 

That cloud of space junk is orbiting 726 miles (1,169 kilometers) above Earth — so high that it'll likely take a century or more (opens in new tab) for atmosphere drag to bring it down.  

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WNU Editor: At an altitude of 1169 km that debris is going to stay in earth orbit for a very long time.

 A Mysterious Russian Satellite Broke Apart Early Last Month Generating A Cloud Of Debris  

Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, debris may last 100+ years -- Business Insider  

Debris from shattered Russian satellite could stay in orbit for decades -- National Post  

Space Force Tracks Debris After Secretive Russian Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit -- CNET  

Mysterious Russian Satellite Explodes -- Futurism

Russia Has Been Busy Launching Military Satellites

At 19:55 UTC on Oct. 15, an Angara 1.2 rocket launched from Site 35/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying a payload for the Russian military to a Sun-synchronous Orbit (SSO).  

Space.com: Russian Angara rocket launches mysterious military satellite  

It was Russia's third orbital launch in less than a week. 

 Russia launched a small military satellite on Saturday (Oct. 15), pulling off its third orbital mission in less than a week. 

An Angara rocket lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia Saturday at 3:55 p.m. EDT (1955 GMT;10:55 p.m. Moscow time), carrying a small satellite called EMKA-3 skyward, according to an update on Telegram by Russia's space agency Roscosmos, which referred to the satellite as Kosmos 2560. 

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Update #1: New Russian navigation satellite now in orbit (GPS World)  

Update #2: Angara 1.2 launches satellite for Russian Aerospace Forces (NASA Space Flight)  

WNU Editor: Three launches in one week. The Russian space program is definitely busy.

Space Debris From A Russian Rocket Launch Lights Up The Australian Skies

EPIC!! Check out this incredible vision captured by Mel Aldridge not long ago at Cashmore near Portland! We're getting plenty of reports. @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/1KuldCy6OJ

— Vic Storm Chasers (@VicStormChasers) May 22, 2020

Space.com: Russian military satellite launch spawns space-junk fireball over Australia (video)

The satellite is apparently part of Russia's missile-warning network.

Russia launched a military satellite to orbit on Friday (May 22), and the mission generated plenty of action in the downward direction as well.

A four-stage Soyuz-2 rocket lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia early Friday morning, carrying a classified payload that's believed to be the fourth satellite for the country's EKS OiBU missile-warning network, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com.

The Soyuz successfully delivered the satellite to its intended orbit, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Friday afternoon.

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Update #1: Russian Satellite, Comet or 'UFO'? Videos of 'Epic' Fireball Seen in Australia's Sky Puzzle Netizens (Sputnik)
Update #2: Space debris of Russian rocket lights up Australian skies (ZEE News)

WNU Editor: The debris came from this Russian rocket launch .... Russia Launch EKS Early Warning Satellite Aboard Soyuz 2.1b (Rocket Rundown).

The Kremlin Is Worried About U.S. And NATO Plans For The Militarization Of space

Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) First Deputy Head Alexander Ivanov, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and Federal Agency for Special Construction head Alexander Volosov watch a rocket booster carrying satellites blast off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Mikhail Metzel | TASS

CNBC: Putin fears the US and NATO are militarizing space and Russia is right to worry, experts say

* It looks like NATO and Russia have a new domain to compete and conflict over: space.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he was “seriously concerned” about NATO’s “attempts to militarize outer space” when he met with members of the Kremlin’s Security Council last month.

NATO, the U.S. and Russia have a new domain to compete and conflict over: space.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that the U.S. saw space as as “theater of military operations” and that the development of the U.S. Space Force posed a threat to Russia.

“The U.S. military-political leadership openly considers space as a military theater and plans to conduct operations there,” Putin said at a meeting with defense officials in Sochi, according to Russian news agency TASS.

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Update: Putin urges greater attention to strengthening orbital group of satellites (TASS)

WNU Editor: The U.S. has always been focused on space and its military capabilities, primarily developing sophisticated surveillance/spy and communications satellites. NATO's commitment is new. But the problem has always been the same. The U.S. and NATO may consider space as a military theatre where military operations can be conducted, and they have proposed and advanced many ideas and plans to do so, but they have yet to commit any "real" money to move forward.

Russia's Space Program Rocked By Major Theft And Corruption

Vladimir Putin inspects the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2015. © Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi

BBC: Russia corruption: Putin's pet space project Vostochny tainted by massive theft

Russia's new Vostochny space centre has lost at least 11bn roubles (£133m; $172m) through theft and top officials have been jailed.

So what went wrong with President Vladimir Putin's pet project?

Russia's Federal Investigative Committee (SK) says it is handling 12 more criminal cases linked to theft in this mega-project, which Mr Putin sees as a strategic priority for Russia, because of its huge commercial potential.

The longest jail term handed down so far was 11-and-a-half years for Yuri Khrizman, former head of state construction firm Dalspetsstroy.

Prof Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told the BBC the Vostochny scandal highlighted the scale of corruption in Mr Putin's huge state bureaucracy.

"How can you deal with it without declaring war on your own elite? He's not prepared to do that. This dependency on mega-projects almost invariably creates massive opportunities for embezzlement," Mr Galeotti said.

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WNU Editor: With the exception of Russia's massive oil projects, every other major Russian mega project is a recipe for massive theft and corruption. I still remember the Sochi Olympics and the insane costs involved in that project .... Russia Is Spending A Ludicrous Amount Of Money On The Winter Olympics (Business Insider). At least Russian media is reporting this theft. In the past they would have ignore it.

More News On Russia's Space Program Rocked By Major Theft And Corruption

‘They keep stealing in hundreds of millions’: Putin outraged by ongoing fraud at Vostochny Cosmodrome construction -- RT
Kremlin: $169 mln stolen out of $1.4 bln allocated for Vostochny spaceport construction -- TASS
Putin bemoans continued corruption at space base -- ABC News/AP
Putin: hundreds of millions being stolen in construction of Vostochny cosmodrome -- Crime Russia
Corrupt officials removed from Vostochny spaceport construction -- TASS

Russia's Space Agency Wants To Deploy A Satellite Network to Watch 'Any Process On Earth'

CC BY-SA 4.0 / José Furtado

Sputnik: Russia Mulling Sovereign's Eye Satellite Network to Watch 'Any Process on Earth'

Russia launched over two dozen satellites into space last year, and had some 146 civilian and military satellites orbiting the planet as of mid-2018, according to UN figures.

Russia's space agency is proposing the creation of a constellation of remote sensing satellites dubbed the Sovereign's Eye ('Gosudarevo Oko'), Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has announced.

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WNU Editor:  The ultimate spy in the sky system.

Last Month's Russian Rocket Launch Failure Was Due To The Wrong Cosmodrome Coordinates Being Inputed Into The Computer

The Souyz-2 spacecraft with Meteor-M satellite and 18 additional small satellites launches from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome, near the town of Tsiolkovsky in Amur region, Russia, on Nov. 28, 2017. (Stringer/Reuters)

CBC/Reuters: Russia has figured out what caused its rocket to fail during launch

Rocket was programmed with coordinates for wrong cosmodrome.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday the failed launch of a 2.6 billion-rouble ($57 million Cdn) satellite last month was due to an embarrassing programming error.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly-launched weather satellite — the Meteor-M — after it blasted off from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East.

Eighteen smaller satellites belonging to scientific, research and commercial companies from Russia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Japan, Canada and Germany, were on board the same rocket.

Speaking to Rossiya 24 state TV channel, Rogozin said the failure had been caused by human error.

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WNU Editor:Here is an easy bet .... someone(s) lost their job.

Remembering The First Man To Die Returning From Space

The man who fell from space. Vladimir Komarov's remains in an open casket. RIA Novosti/Photo Researchers Inc.

WNU Editor: Came across this story over the weekend. It brought back old memories. The story on how he died is here .... Cosmonaut Crashed Into Earth 'Crying In Rage' (NPR).

New Russian Military Satellite Is Lost After Launch

Russia’s Soyuz 2-1v rocket blasted off at 1409 GMT (9:09 a.m. EST) Saturday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense

SpaceFlight Now: New Russian military satellite declared lost

A Russian defense payload built to monitor maritime activity, and possibly track the movements of submarines, is stuck to the upper stage of its rocket after launching Saturday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, multiple Russian news agencies reported.

The Kanopus ST spacecraft is still attached to the Volga upper stage of a modified Soyuz rocket that was supposed to deploy the satellite into a circular sun-synchronous orbit nearly 700 kilometers (435 miles) above Earth, and experts said Monday the craft is heading for a destructive re-entry within a few days.

Russia’s Tass news agency and the Kommersant newspaper reported the satellite could not be separated from the Volga upper stage, which made its second flight Saturday after a successful debut in 2013.

More News On Reports Of A New Russian Military Satellite Malfunctioning After Launch

Reports: Russia Loses Advanced Military Satellite After Launch -- AFP
Russia's Failed Military Satellite to Burn Up in Atmosphere -- Moscow Times
Russia loses a satellite in another setback to its space program -- FOX News
Russian military satellite lost after launch: agencies -- Reuters
Russian Military Satellite Suffers Launch Failure, Will Crash Soon -- Space.com
Russia loses 'super-satellite' -- News24
Russian Military Satellite Fails In Major Blow To Moscow's Federal Space Agency -- IBTimes
Russia loses advanced military satellite after launch: reports -- Phys.org

Russia's Space Industry Rocked By Huge Corruption Scandal

Mr Dyakonov is accused of providing the Khrunichev Centre, pictured, with 'incomplete' certificates and receipts for consulting services since 2007 Photo: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

The Telegraph: The multi-million pound corruption scandal engulfing Russia's space industry

The arrest of Dmitry Dyakonov, director of a company called Ekopravo, comes as the space industry faces accusations of embezzlement.

Russian officials have launched an investigation into one of Russia's most important spaceship builders amid a multi-million pound corruption scandal engulfing the country's troubled space industry.

The arrest of Dmitry Dyakonov, the director of a firm that provides legal services to the company that builds Russia's famous Proton and Angara space rockets, followed accusations of misappropriation and embezzlement across the industry that could run into billions of pounds.

Mr Dyakonov, the general director of a company called Ekopravo, was placed under house arrest on Monday, a spokesman for Moscow's Basmanny District court said.

WNU Editor: Russia is no stranger to corruption .... but this is a big one even by Russian standards.

More News On Russia's Space Rocket Industry Corruption Scandal

$1.8 billion disappears in Russian space program -- CNN
Vladimir Putin’s space dream dragged into $1.5bn black hole -- The Times/The Australian
Russian space industry 'collapsing' following $1.8bn corruption scandal -- IBTimes
Audit Reveals $1.8 Billion Financial Violations at Russia's Space Agency -- Moscow Times
Russia's Space Agency to Be Reformed as Corporation by End of Year -- Moscow Times

Did A Russian Military Satellite Explode Over The U.S.?

The satellite, launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near Arkhangelsk on May 6, was designed to drop its film in special canisters from space onto Russian territory. samspace.ru

Russia Denies Burn-Up of Military Spy Satellite Over U.S. -- Moscow Times

The Defense Ministry has challenged reports that a Kobalt-M spy satellite reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burnt up over the U.S., potentially leaving Russian military intelligence photos lying in Colorado or Wyoming.

On Sept. 3, the American Meteor Society recorded more than 30 eyewitness reports of a slow-moving fireball crossing Colorado and into southern Wyoming. Local media reported the event as a meteor entering the atmosphere, but amateur space flight observers on the spaceflight101 blog said on Tuesday it must have been a Russian Kobalt-M spy satellite, after comparing the path of the fireball to the orbits of known satellites.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Major-General Igor Konashenkov denied this on Tuesday, however, claiming that Russia keeps close tabs on its satellite fleet and that nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

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More News On Reports That A Russian Military Satellite Exploded Over The U.S.

Russia’s defense ministry refutes allegations about military satellite’s explosion over US -- ITAR-TASS
Moscow Denies Reports of Russian Satellite 'Explosion' Over U.S. -- Radio Free Europe
Russian Defense Ministry Denies Reports that Its Satellite Exploded Above US -- RIA Novosti

My Comment: Another one of those mysteries.

Russia's Putin Commits $50 billion In Space Spending By 2020 With A Space Weapon Deterrent By 2030

(12 Oct. 2008) --- The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 12, 2008 carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz lifted off at 2:01 a.m. (CDT) with NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander; Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, Soyuz commander and Expedition 18 flight engineer; and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott. The three crewmembers are scheduled to dock with the ISS on Oct. 14. Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott will return to Earth Oct. 24 with two of the Expedition 17 crewmembers currently on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Russia Plans Over $50 Billion In Space Spending By 2020, Eyes Space Weapon Deterrent By 2030 -- Endgadget

We've already seen the Obama administration announce its latest budget for NASA this week, and now President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will be spending more than $50 billion on its space-related efforts by 2020. The most immediate result of that will be the completion of the Vostochny Cosmodrome near Russia's border with China, which Putin says is still on track to see its first rocket launch as soon as 2015 and its first manned launch in 2018. With NASA decommissioning its shuttle program, all manned space launches currently take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (as pictured above), and Putin says the new launch base will also be open for other countries to use.

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More News On Putin's Commitment To Russia's Space Program

Putin Builds Space-Arms Defense as Russia Targets Mars, Moon -- Bloomberg
Russian space industry to get $52bn investment, possibly own ministry -- RT
Russia unveils $50B drive for space supremacy -- Washington Times
Putin says Russia to launch first manned space flight from its soil in 2018 -- Reuters
Russia's Putin Announces $50 Billion In New Space Spending -- NPR
Russia Is Investing $50 Billion In Its (Very Ambitious) Space Program -- Popular Science

Did U.S. Radar Bring Down A Russian Satellite?

The theory that Russia’s Mars mission failed due to a U.S. radar is extremely “exotic,” Russian scientists said on Tuesday. RIA Novsoti

Did U.S. Radar Fry Russian Mars Probe? -- Washington Post

MOSCOW — Russian space officials are speculating that American radar may have zapped the failed Mars moon probe that fell into the ocean Sunday, a prominent Russia newspaper said Tuesday.

Russia has been trying to explain the spectacular and humiliating failure of the Phobos-Gunt probe ever since it got into trouble soon after its Nov. 9 launch.

Tuesday, the authoritative Kommersant newspaper, quoting an unnamed source, said a commission investigating the failure was considering whether the spacecraft was damaged shortly after the launch by flying through powerful radar signals from a U.S. installation in the Marshall Islands, which was tracking an asteroid.

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More News On Reports That U.S. Radar Brought Down A Russian Satellite

Russia to Test if U.S. Radar Downed Phobos Probe -- RIA Novosti
Russia to investigate if US radar inadvertently interfered with failed Mars moon probe -- Washington Post/AP
Russia investigates theory US radars caused probe crash -- The Telegraph
Russia asks if US radar ruined space probe -- Seattle PI/AP
Oops! Radar may have caused space crash -- Sydney Morning Herald
Russia to Test If U.S. Radar Affected Failed Space Probe -- Moscow Times
Did US radar down Russian Mars probe? -- RT News

Update: Russian scientists/officials are now discounting U.S. involvement in the crash .... calling it extremely "exotic".