Russia launched research craft for anti-satellite nuke two years ago

Cosmos-2553 went into orbit in February 2022 just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Kremlin described reports that Russia is developing a nuclear antisatellite system as fabrications. Picture: AFP

Russia launched a satellite into space in February 2022 that is ­designed to test components for a potential anti-satellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device, US officials said.

The launched satellite doesn’t carry a nuclear weapon, but US officials say it is linked to a Russian nuclear anti-satellite program that has been a growing worry for the Biden administration, congress and experts outside government in recent months. The weapon, if deployed, would give Moscow the ability to destroy hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit with a nuclear blast.

The satellite in question, known as Cosmos-2553 is still travelling around the Earth in an unusual orbit and has been ­secretly operating as a research and development platform for non-nuclear components of the new weapon system, which Russia has yet to ­deploy, other officials said.

Russia says the spacecraft is intended for scientific research, a claim US officials say isn’t plausible. Though the US has been aware that Russia was interested in a nuclear anti-satellite capability for years, it has only recently been able to better determine the program’s progress.

The eventual weapon, if and when deployed in orbit, could wipe out satellites in a part of space dominated by American government and commercial assets, they said, including SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, which has proven critical for Ukraine’s war effort.

Details about the research satellite clarify a recent frenzy in Washington over Russia’s nuclear space ambitions. It was triggered in February when Republican Mike Turner, the chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, issued a cryptic statement about an unspecified “serious national-security threat” to the US and requested that President Joe Biden declassify information around it.

Sources: The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety; Dept. of Defense; Space-Track.org (Russian craft)

The White House later confirmed that Russia was pursuing what it called a “troubling” anti-satellite capability.

Officials characterised the matter as a serious concern, though one that didn’t present an active threat to Americans’ safety, as the weapon hadn’t been ­deployed in space and isn’t wasn’t intended to attack targets on Earth. One person familiar with the matter described the launched satellite as a “prototype” for a weapon, but others said the Russian program hadn’t progressed that far.

The Kremlin said in February that reports Russia was developing a nuclear anti-Satellite system were a fabrication. “Our position is clear and transparent: We have always been categorically against, and are now against, the placement of nuclear weapons in space,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said that month.

The US and Japan sought to put Russia on the spot last month by asking the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution affirming the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans putting nuclear weapons into orbit. Russia vetoed the resolution, saying it failed to go far enough by not banning all types of space weapons.

US efforts to discuss its concerns about the anti-satellite program directly with Russian officials have also been rebuffed.

A Russian rocket launched Cosmos-2553 into orbit 19 days before Mr Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The spacecraft was “equipped with newly developed onboard instruments and systems for testing them under conditions of exposure to radiation and heavy charged particles,” Russia’s Ministry of Defence said, according to the state-controlled TASS news service.

Assistant Secretary of State Mallory Stewart, in public remarks earlier this month challenged that explanation, without identifying the specific satellite.

“The orbit is in a region not used by any other spacecraft – that in itself was somewhat unusual,” she said, speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “And the orbit is a region of higher radiation than normal lower-Earth orbits, but not high enough of a radiation environment to allow accelerated testing of electronics, as Russia has ­described the purpose to be.”

The Pentagon has become increasingly reliant on commercial satellites, which unlike military and intelligence spacecraft, aren’t hardened to withstand intense radiation from a nuclear blast.

The Wall Street Journal