By BlueShift | 2025-07-25

Russian satellites are deploying unknown objects that could potentially be used to attack other satellites, say experts.

Russian satellite Kosmos 2558 on June 28 released an unknown object into orbit that US officials dubbed "Object C."

Kosmos 2558 has been continuously pursuing the orbital path of US surveillance satellite USA 326 since 2022. While it is not unusual for satellites to align periodically during the orbit, the persistent and precise mirroring of the US spacecraft's path has cemented concerns that Russia sent Kosmos 2558 to stalk the satellite.

US officials are concerned that Object C could be an anti-satellite (ASAT) device designed to disable orbiting satellites.

The deployment of Object C by Kosmos-2558, which the United States already identified as a potentially hostile spacecraft, matches an established pattern of Russian satellite behavior.

Russia has launched several other satellites to later deploy a smaller object while in orbit -- a tactic that critics have nicknamed "Matryoshka" after the Russian nesting dolls.

These nested satellites have potential dual uses, enabling Russia to launch what at first appears to be a benign satellite that latest releases a second, smaller satellite armed with ASAT capabilities.

Just a month before Kosmos-2558's launch of Object C, observers had sounded the alarm on other Russian satellites tailing US spacecraft.

"I think we should seriously consider that we are perhaps seeing the positioning of a counterspace capacity (a dormant co-orbital ASAT weapon)," Marco Langbroek, an astronomer and lecturer on space situational awareness at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, told Breaking Defense in May.

Langbroek made his remarks after Russia launched Kosmos 2588 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on May 23. The satellite then entered coplanar orbit with US spy satellite USA 338.

"This is the fourth time a Russian military satellite is placed co-orbital with a US military optical reconnaissance satellite in five [years'] time," Langbroek said.

"To me, staying in the same orbital plane for 2+ years does not indicate they are 'inspector satellites' -- what more is there to 'inspect' after 2+ years?" he said, referring to spacecraft designed with capability to maneuver close to and inspect other satellites.

"Rather, I strongly suspect they are sleeping interceptors, to be activated when necessary," he added.

Project Nivelir

Such satellite-stalking operations fall under Russia's secretive Project Nivelir, say analysts.

While the project has been cloaked in secrecy, open-source research and tracking of satellite launches and orbital behavior have helped researchers amass significant knowledge about the program.

Since 2013, the behavior of satellites launched as a part of Project Nivelir has been consistent with covert ASAT testing. Nivelir satellites have conducted docking experiments and close-approach maneuvers. Two of them have launched small, high-speed projectiles that analysts suspect to be ASAT devices.

The Kremlin has been public about its interest in developing orbital nuclear weapons for high-altitude nuclear attacks on satellites. While no evidence of substantial progress toward an orbital nuclear weapon exists, the ability to conceal any sort of weaponry within a satellite could be cause for concern.

While no treaties explicitly ban the development of ASAT weaponry, international consensus has acknowledged its destabilizing effects on international space cooperation and space security.

In December 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/77/41, which proposed a moratorium on the development and testing of direct ascent ASAT devices.