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Mysterious Russian Space Object May Be Anti-Satellite Warfare Technology


FILE - A Russian-built Proton rocket with Russian relay satellite Luch-5V and the Kazakh communication satellite KazSat-3 aboard blasts of from a launch pad in the Russian-leased Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, April 28, 2014.
FILE - A Russian-built Proton rocket with Russian relay satellite Luch-5V and the Kazakh communication satellite KazSat-3 aboard blasts of from a launch pad in the Russian-leased Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, April 28, 2014.

Space experts say Russia may be testing a satellite capable of chasing down other orbiting spacecraft either to approach and observe or disable and destroy them.

Amateur astronomers Tuesday described as strange a spacecraft they have watched for weeks guiding itself toward Russian space objects, saying it could be Russia testing anti-satellite warfare technology.

The object called Kosmos 2499 was put into orbit during a routine communications satellite launch in December 2013, but was thought to be space junk until the Russians claimed it in a U.N. document in May.

A veteran amateur satellite tracker, Robert Christy, told The Moscow Times all the big space-faring nations, Russia, China and the U.S., are developing similar capabilities.

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