arstechnica.com US officials: A Russian rocket launch last week likely deployed a space weapon
“Naming space as a warfighting domain was kind of forbidden, but that’s changed.”…
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Intelligence and Defence @discuss.tchncs.de geophysicist @discuss.tchncs.de New Russian satellite-to-satellite weapon was launched into orbit behind a US spy satellite
Key excerpt is below, but the whole article is worth a read:
On May 16, Russia launched a satellite into low-Earth orbit that the United States assesses is likely a counter-space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low-Earth orbit," said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. "Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite."
Kosmos 2576 is flying in the same orbital plane as a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spy satellite, meaning it can regularly approach the top-secret US reconnaissance platform. The launch of Kosmos 2576 from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket was precisely timed to happen when the Earth's rotation brought the launch site underneath the orbital path of the NRO spy satellite, officially designated USA 314.