Space experts say Russia may be testing a satellite capable of chasing down other orbiting spacecraft either to approach and observe or disable and destroy them.
Amateur astronomers Tuesday described as strange a spacecraft they have watched for weeks guiding itself toward Russian space objects, saying it could be Russia testing anti-satellite warfare technology.
A Russian-built Proton rocket with Russian relay satellite Luch-5V and the Kazakh communication satellite KazSat-3 aboard blasts of from a launch pad in the Russian-leased Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on April 28, 2014. /AFP The object called Kosmos 2499 was put into orbit during a routine communications satellite launch in December 2013, but was thought to be space junk until the Russians claimed it in a UN document in May.
A veteran amateur satellite tracker, Robert Christy, told The Moscow Times all the big space-faring nations, Russia, China and the U.S., are developing similar capabilities.
