C (12:01)

For our talk today, I'll actually start with with Russia. Not heavy on the launch side so much, but some interesting on orbit activity from from a couple of their satellites. Okay, so you might recall a couple of months ago, I think it was, we talked about a little widget they had up in the we called it super synchronous orbit or in super geo orbit, which is actually technically incorrect. It's a geosynchronous orbit that's also highly elliptical.

A (12:29)

Okay, yes, I do remember this. I do. I remember. I put a pin in that one and I said I think we might be going back to that at some point. So we're going back to it. Okay.

C (12:37)

Yes. And that's going to be a common theme for today. So. So we have Cosmos 2589. That's the satellite that when Russia launched it in June of this year, it went into a geosynchronous. So at an orbital period of about 24 hours. But unlike a typical geosynchronous satellite, which has the average altitude above the surface of the earth of about 35,786km, this thing had it had an apogee. So its furthest point away was over 51,000 km, about 51,150 km above the surface of the Earth. Swinging its lowest point was just over 20,000 kilometers from the earth. Right. So it has a 24 hour period and it travels from east to west, west to east, remaining over the Russian mainland. And the interesting thing with 2589 is it was built by some companies that were also instrumental in what we've seen in low Earth orbit with some of their, what we call nivellier satellites, which are these inspector satellites. Right. So the one satellite goes up and it has a sub satellite that comes off and it does, you know, it's basically an observer satellite that will inspect its parent or it could inspect another satellite if it wanted to. And then in the low Earth orbit cases, we've seen that sub satellite actually release projectiles at high velocity. U.S. space Command is kind of deem that as a weapons test. So same folks that made those Navellier satellites, which are all in low Earth orbit, were partially responsible for developing and building this Cosmos 2589. So when it went up, a lot of folks noticed hey, that this is unusual. So it went into this unusual orbit and it was built by this team of folks that has some experience in developing at least inspection satellites, we'll call them that for now.

A (14:38)

Right. And I remember when we, when we talked about this some months ago, it was keep an eye on it because it might do something like Russian nesting doll style in addition to this unusual orbit. So what have we seen?

C (14:50)

Yeah, so it did, it did do something. It actually hatched. Sorry, the Astro guys will get off me for saying that. It released a sub satellite which we called a number of different things until we finally settled on Cosmos 2590. So 2589 is the mothership, if you will. Cosmos 2590 is kind of the dog.

A (15:12)

The baby. Yeah, the baby, the daughter. Yeah.

C (15:15)

So 2590 was released from 2589 just a couple weeks after. So after 2589 was on orbit. So 26th of June, 2590 is noticed.

A (15:30)

Right.

C (15:31)

And over the next couple of months we see 2589 really doesn't do much maneuvering. It stays in this, in this geosynchronous elliptical orbit, just kind of doing its thing. But we see a lot of maneuvering out of the, the offspring satellite, I'll just call it that. So 2590 is, is doing a lot of RPO activity, the rendezvous proximity operations with, against 2589. So we expect, we assume that that's doing some sort of inspection missions very similar to what we've seen them do test in, in low Earth orbit. We did not see any of those high velocity third object projectiles released from from any of these satellites. So that's, that's a key difference. But we, we obviously know that 2590 is a highly maneuverable object and they again looks like they conducted several tests. And then from the. So that was in June when 2590 was released. So we have a number of different RPO events between then and the 14th of November and from the 2nd to the 14th of November this year. So just last month they got closer than what we'd seen in the past. And there's some margin of error in all of the figures that I'm throwing out because these objects are very far away from the Earth, so accuracy can be a concern.

A (16:57)

So between the mother and the daughter, or the parent and the offspring, whatever you want. Got it? Yep.

C (17:01)

Between the 2nd through the 14th of November, it really looks like they're doing a final operations test because they kept those two things very close together. I say close, I'm talking, it looks like less than two kilometers apart, which.

A (17:13)

Yeah, close. Close in satellite terms.

C (17:15)

Yes, exactly, exactly. And so we hadn't seen that before. And then after the 14th, we saw 2589 make its first maneuver in quite some time and it started to separate. So two week period of this kind of intense RPO activity followed by 2589 making a maneuver that over time it became a repetitive pattern where we see it begin to lower its apogee and increase its perigee. So what it's doing now is it looks like it's slowly creeping back to geosynchronous orbit. Right. So without this crazy elliptical piece to it. Right. So as perigee and apogee get closer to one another, your eccentricity goes down you closer to that perfect circle. Right. So an ex. Interesting 0 would be a perfect circle. Right. Now they're around just north of point three. So before I mentioned, they were about 2km apart for a couple of weeks now at the end of the month they were over 3,000 kilometers apart. Right. So they're separating fairly quickly. We're not seeing the same eccentricity decrease from 2590 at all. So you know those, they're continuing to test it. We have some, seen some maneuver, so it's still live, but it's, it's no longer interacting with, with 2589. Russia has launched other satellites into similar orbits to, to these two in the past. Those were communication satellites and it's taken about three to six months for those satellites to actually get to their operational orbits, which were more traditional, your more traditional geosynchronous orbits. So we're expecting this to be about the same. 2589 has a rather large bus and the thrusters that we think are on there aren't necessarily all that powerful. So we're expecting it to be closer to the six month, maybe even a little bit longer than six months before it finally settles into geosynchronous orbit. And maybe I shouldn't use some term, settle. I don't know what it's going to do once it gets into that geosynchronous orbit, how Russia intends to use it. You know, is there another simple, another daughter on board?

A (19:31)

Right.

C (19:31)

Is there more than one of these sub satellites similar to 2590 on board? How does Russia intend to operate? Is it going to kind of traverse the geo belt like some of the other inspector satellites that we track, or is it going to be more like the Russian Luch Olymp satellite, which tends to go to one target satellite, we'll call it target satellite, hang out for several months, and then move on to another satellite.

A (19:55)

Oh, so it's not. Its job might not be done. It's not. Hey, I've done the inspection. We just don't know really.

C (20:00)

Yeah, probably not. I mean, I'm thinking that they did some testing in this geosynchronous, highly elliptical orbit for a lot of reasons it remained over Russia. It also makes it really tough if you're operating all the geo inspector satellites that we know of are in geosynchronous orbit. Right. So if you're operating at 51,000 kilometers, you're 20,000 kilometers above the geo, the typical geo belt. So the ability to do any sort of imaging or characterization of the Russian activities with these two satellites is, is challenged by those distances. Right. You know, now that they're moving back towards once they join the geosynchronous belt, then Inspector satellites have a much better opportunity to take a look and see what this thing actually may be capable of. Okay. But we don't know if, if Russian plans to what, what their plans are or how they plan on using it, but it's likely something we'll be able to observe. So I think we have a reasonable chance of seeing what they're up to with this. But I, I think for now it's going to be kind of in this pattern of every 12 hours it does what we call in track burns. Right. So it changes its velocity, it increases its velocity at apogee in order to raise perigee, and then it decreases velocity of perigee to reduce apogee, and it's just going to flatten it out a little bit. Several months. Yes. So they yeah, kind of in this jelly bean looking orbit right now and that jelly beans narrower, narrower. So far the, the apogee's dropped just over 3,200 kilometers and the perigees increased about that same number since November 14th.

A (21:40)

All right, Greg, we're going to have to leave it there for this month, but Happy holidays to you. Happy New Year and thank you so much for all this information that you've been sharing with our audience this year. I have learned so much from you. I've learned a lot about orbital mechanics through you too. So I really appreciate all the education and I can't wait to learn more from you next year too.

C (21:59)

Happy holidays to the entire T minus crew. It's been great working with you these last few months and if anybody wants to get more in depth information, they can always go to Integrity Flight. Just Google it and then you can subscribe for free there and see what this stuff looks like in in print with graphics.

A (22:27)

We will be right back. Ford BlueCruise Hands Free highway driving takes the work out of being behind the wheel, allowing you to relax and reconnect while also staying in control. Enjoy the drive in Bluecruise enabled vehicles like the F150 Explorer and Mustang Mach E available feature on equipped vehicles terms apply. Does not replace safe driving. See Ford.com BlueCruise for more details. Welcome back. And I mentioned it a bit earlier today, but we here at N2K are taking an end of the year break with our daily intel briefings after today's show. And we're not the only ones who take the time off. I'm sure many of you listening might be doing the same. And if you're not, and you wish you were, I am sorry, I don't mean to rub it in. Well, the NASA scientists who work with the Curiosity rover on Mars will also be taking a break and it just happens to be with good timing for the holiday season. But in this case, Curiosity is not taking time off for festivities. It is actually conjunction time, meaning Earth and Mars cannot see each other as the sun gets between us. This happens every two years or so and it just so happens that the upcoming conjunction for Earth and Mars goes from December 27th to January 20th. Nice timing. Communications between our two planets gets really garbled by the sun's obstruction, if not completely obstructed. So. So it is best to take a break during that time and not plan on sending any commands to these very precious rovers of ours. As a result, Curiosity has been safely parked by the NASA team for its conjunction break when comms goes dark and in essence Curiosity will disappear behind the sun while Curiosity is parked. Background observations will continue, but nope, there will be no roving until then. To the NASA science team, we wish you all the best and hope you enjoy your well deserved break and and I can't help but wonder what the rover will daydream of while it is idle. Maybe I'll mull it over on my own holiday break in Curiosity. We will see you again soon on SOL4787. And that is T minus. Brought to you by N2K CyberWire we'd love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like the show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space2k.com we are proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector sector. From the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies, N2K helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how@n2k.com N2K Senior Producer is Alice Carouse. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our Executive producer is Jennifer Ivan. Peter Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here in all of 2025. I wish you a happy holidays and a very happy new Year. See you in 2026. T minus. The Uniswap Wallet makes it easier and safer to own and use crypto Created by pioneers of the crypto economy, the Uniswap Protocol has powered over $3 trillion in trading volume and it's trusted by tens of millions worldwide. With the Uniswap Wallet, you can discover, swap and manage your crypto all from your phone. Buy your first crypto assets in just a few taps and start exploring the freedom of decentralized finance with Uniswap. Tap the banner to get started.