{ "archive_path": "archive/1792793184.869672", "base_url": "www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite", "basename": "", "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-23 22:06", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.defensenews.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/index.html" }, "domain": "www.defensenews.com", "extension": "", "hash": "1XCXTMDZ568HPXPF8WPG", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.defensenews.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.631754+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.321893+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.889792+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.639490+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:10.732423+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:06.581778+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpiz2y21c4", "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:06.565573+00:00", "index_texts": [ "KYIV, Ukraine \u2014 Washington blamed Moscow at the United Nations on Wednesday for deliberately moving a Russian military satellite with an undisclosed mission \u201cdangerously\u201d close last week to a U.S.-registered satellite believed to serve Ukraine, with officials vowing to defend American interests in space.\n\n\n\nThe Russian satellite, Cosmos 2612, spent more than two weeks maneuvering toward ICEYE-X36, a radar satellite operated by the American arm of Finnish company ICEYE that supplies imagery to Ukraine\u2019s military through some of its spacecraft, then shadowed it from as close as a third of a mile through the weekend of Oct. 17. \n\n\n\nU.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas G. DiNanno called the Russian satellite\u2019s behavior \u201cthreatening,\u201d and said the country had been \u201cintentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite, behaviors consistent with on-orbit weapons operations.\u201d \n\n\n\nSpace historian and former NASA astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said that he believed it is the first rendezvous in low Earth orbit between two active satellites without one owner\u2019s approval. \n\n\n\nThe close encounter came weeks after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink publicly confirmed that the U.S. has weapons in orbit and the Space Force picked two companies to build space-to-space reconnaissance satellites. It also followed reports that trillionaire Elon Musk \u2014 under White House orders \u2014 slowed the military-grade Starlink that Ukraine relies on, rendering some of the country\u2019s essential air defense weapons useless.\n\n\n\nThe operation fits a wider Russian campaign of intimidation against Europe and the U.S. that lets Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201cpoke the West in the eye and watch the West do nothing,\u201d according to Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \n\n\n\n\u201cThey prove a point \u2013 the West can\u2019t stop me,\u201d Swope added Wednesday during a CSIS panel on the encounter.\n\n\n\nAs the U.S. and its allies increasingly rely on commercial capabilities for national security, key assets like satellites have \u201cbecome vulnerabilities that can be exploited by our adversary,\u201d according to Greg Gillinger, senior vice president of strategy and development at Virginia-based Integrity ISR, who also spoke on the CSIS panel.\n\n\n\nThe impact of a possible satellite attack could reach well beyond one company or country, since commercial satellites now carry much of the imagery and connectivity militaries fight with, experts said. Musk\u2019s Starlink slowdown in Ukraine showed how quickly a military force can suffer when that access is throttled without notice \u2014 and how easily local geopolitical conflicts can explode into global security crises. \n\n\n\nOn Oct. 12, commercial trackers feeding the U.S. military\u2019s Joint Commercial Operations cell flagged the possible rendezvous when Cosmos 2612 slid into ICEYE-X36\u2019s orbit roughly 345 miles above Earth, according to Integrity ISR\u2019s newsletter.\n\n\n\nOn Oct. 15 and 16, the Russian satellite moved from more than 200 miles behind ICEYE-X36 to roughly 3 miles away before moving in closer and holding position through the weekend, tracking firm LeoLabs said in a statement reported by CNN.\n\n\n\nBoth satellites travel at roughly 4 miles (7 kilometers) per second, so getting two objects \u201cwithin a hundred meters or even a kilometer\u201d of each other is \u201cthe equivalent of flying in a very tight formation in an aircraft,\u201d Gillinger said.\n\n\n\n\u201cRussia didn\u2019t accidentally get within a kilometer of X36,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is an indication of intent that they\u2019re sending a message.\u201d\n\n\n\nICEYE, whose radar satellites see through clouds, smoke and darkness, expanded cooperation with Ukraine\u2019s military, pledging continued imagery \u201con tactical timelines,\u201d according to a January statement. However, the company has not confirmed which of its satellites serve Kyiv.\n\n\n\nMoscow has warned since the first year of its full-scale invasion that Western commercial satellites helping Ukraine could become legitimate military targets.\n\n\n\nICEYE said it is \u201caware of the situation and tracking it closely\u201d and that its \u201cconstellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience,\u201d a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine earlier this week.\n\n\n\nRussia\u2019s intent behind the satellite maneuvers remains unclear. According to LeoLabs, an American space technology company, possible aims range from intelligence collection and close inspection to coercion and groundwork for future operations against satellites.\n\n\n\nThe maneuvers demonstrated capabilities that could be used to \u201cinspect, characterize, shadow, or potentially interfere with another spacecraft,\u201d though they \u201cdo not establish hostile intent,\u201d the company said.\n\n\n\nAnalysts could not yet say whether Moscow planned an attack and then reversed course, or was orbiting nearby for another purpose entirely.\n\n\n\nRussia could have been doing \u201ca dry run\u201d for a future attack, or the satellite could have been carrying a weapon, from a jammer to a laser to a projectile, Swope explained.\n\n\n\n\u201cWas the intent to blow up the satellite? No,\u201d he said. \u201cWas the intent to put some type of energy on the satellite? Probably\u2026 I don\u2019t know why you\u2019d need to maneuver in this way, this close, unless you wanted to do something that involved putting energy on that satellite.\u201d\n\n\n\nThe Russian satellite has since pulled back, but not far.\n\n\n\nIt was again flying at ICEYE-X36\u2019s altitude on Wednesday, holding roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) behind it, and could \u201ceasily close that gap again at the time and place of their choosing,\u201d Gillinger said.\n\n\n\nRussia could try to approach another ICEYE satellite within weeks, as two more satellites from the same launch will soon line up with the orbit of a second satellite, ICEYE-X37, according to Integrity ISR.\n\n\n\nIf they move in, \u201cwe could see another scenario where another commercial satellite is closely trailed by one of these Russian satellites,\u201d Gillinger said.\n\n\n\nThe retreat began Oct. 18, two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order waiving tariffs and most economic restrictions on Russia.\n\n\n\nSwope said Trump\u2019s move to ease sanctions \u201ccould have been a reason why Putin said, \u2018You know, now\u2019s not the time to exacerbate tensions specifically with the United States. Maybe we should pause this operation.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cIf you\u2019re getting close to a deal on something, why jeopardize that?\u201d he said.\n\n\n\nThe potential for a conflict in space has been growing in recent months.\n\n\n\nWashington \u201cappears to lack response options\u201d if Russia threatened U.S. military and commercial satellites with a nuclear weapon in orbit, according to the conclusions from a 2025 war-game scenario where fictional Russian space objects threatened American interests. \n\n\n\nThere is no public indication that Cosmos 2612 carries a nuclear weapon, but Swope said that there is also still no internationally recognized rule for determining if a maneuver like this one should be considered hostile \u2014 or what international standards should be followed in a response. \n\n\n\n\u201cEven though we all can make a good case on why this was [hostile], there\u2019s no norm that you could point to,\u201d he said.\n\n\n\nWithout a clear response plan or real consequences for aggression, menacing satellite moves like this one are \u201cliterally just a spigot that Russia could turn on and off\u201d to increase pressure on adversaries, Swope said.\n\n\n\nRussia, he added, \u201cis going to turn it on again.\u201d" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:04.306258+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:04.300138+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "\u2018The West can\u2019t stop me\u2019: Space wars heat up as Russia tails a Ukraine-linked US satellite - Defense News", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:04.275911+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-10-23T22:30:04.269224+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/index.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.898193+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "\u2018The West can\u2019t stop me\u2019: Space wars heat up as Russia tails a Ukraine-linked US satellite - Defense News", "warc": null, "wget": "www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/index.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1792793184.869672", "newest_archive_date": "2026-10-23T22:30:06.581778+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.321893+00:00", "path": "/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "9dbc6d68-0773-4422-9131-a468248d0684", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1792793184-import.txt" ], "tags": ",escalation,pool,war-wiki", "tags_str": "escalation,pool,war-wiki", "timestamp": "1792793184.869672", "title": "\u2018The West can\u2019t stop me\u2019: Space wars heat up as Russia tails a Ukraine-linked US satellite - Defense News", "updated": "2026-10-23T22:29:56.321730+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-10-23 22:29", "url": "https://www.defensenews.com/space/2026/10/23/the-west-cant-stop-me-space-wars-heat-up-as-russia-tails-a-ukraine-linked-us-satellite/" }