Three mysterious new satellites have raised the possibility that Russia is preparing for a potential space war, according to U.S. military analysts who have tracked the launches over the last 18 months.
The three satellites, which the Kremlin states are for communication purposes, could potentially be prototype weapons, according to U.S. military observers.
As is procedure, the United Nations was notified last year by Russia of their launching of three Ronik communications satellites, however, a fourth unexpected craft made it onto the list.
This fourth mystery vehicle is different than the unpowered Ronik satellites, appearing to move on its own into different orbits, similar to vehicles tested by China earlier this year.
After the May 2014 launch, Russia has launched two more of these mysterious spacecrafts.
The unidentified vehicles have been dubbed Kosmos-2491, -2499 and -2504 and are feared to be anti-satellite weapons, due largely to the fact that they have the ability to get very close to other satellites already in space.
Nations such as China and the U.S. have in the past developed so-called ‘hunter killer’ anti-satellite weaponry, however, similar movement by Russia could be viewed as troubling, due to space agencies such as NASA and their heavy reliance upon the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Presently the Soyuz is the only way astronauts have of getting to the International Space Station (ISS), which is a combined venture between the U.S., Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency.
It has recently been reported that officials at Russia’s federal space agency have insisted that these satellites are nothing but peaceful vehicles although the radical orbit changes point to only one possible purpose.
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