Russian satellite shadows radar sat used by Ukraine

A Russian military satellite has maneuvered to within about 5 km (3 miles) of a commercial radar imaging satellite owned by ICEYE and appears to be holding position there, in what independent tracker Jonathan McDowell said may be the first rendezvous in low Earth orbit between two active satellites without the consent of one of the owners.

McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks spacecraft using public orbital data, wrote on X that new tracking data showed Kosmos 2612 made a maneuver on Oct. 16 and was now station-keeping close to ICEYE-X36. He cautioned that he was still waiting for more tracking data to confirm it.

“New TLEs show that K2612 made a manuever on Oct 16 and is now stationkeeping within 5 km or less of ICEYE X36. To my knowledge this is the first LEO rendezvous of two active satellites where the owner of one of the sats did not give approval,” McDowell wrote.

He said the move looked like an unprecedented step by Russia if confirmed, but added that he did not think it quite violated the Outer Space Treaty, noting that he is not a lawyer.

Space tracking company LeoLabs told Axios that the Russian satellite’s movement appeared to be a deliberate approach and that, as of Oct. 17, Kosmos 2612 was roughly three miles from ICEYE-X36. ICEYE declined to comment, and the satellite is tied to the company’s U.S. arm, ICEYE US.

ICEYE, a Finnish-founded company, operates a fleet of small synthetic aperture radar satellites, which can image the ground at night and through clouds. Ukraine has used ICEYE imagery since 2022, including from a satellite bought with crowdfunded donations, and a Ukrainian official told Axios that the military works with the company but could not say whether ICEYE-X36 itself supports Ukraine.

Kosmos 2612 is one of six Russian military satellites launched on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in April 2026, a launch The Defence Blog reported at the time. In May, five of those satellites carried out fuel-hungry maneuvers to shift their orbits into the same plane as ICEYE-X36, and one passed within about 2.5 km of it on May 26, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski later told Reuters the company had moved its satellite in response.

Trackers then watched Kosmos 2612 set up a closer approach. Around Oct. 12, analysts saw it make a single burn that put it back at nearly the same altitude, inclination and orbital plane as ICEYE-X36, trailing the commercial satellite by roughly 475 km (295 miles) and slowly catching up, before the Oct. 16 maneuver brought it alongside.

Russia has a history of parking its satellites near other countries’ spacecraft. In 2020, Kosmos 2542 and its subsatellite Kosmos 2543 trailed a U.S. government reconnaissance satellite, prompting public complaints from U.S. Space Command, and Russia has tested a projectile fired from one of its own satellites. Analysts say a satellite this close could photograph, monitor or potentially interfere with its target, though the purpose of Kosmos 2612 is not publicly known.