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| click diagram to enlarge |
I have written before on this blog about the Russian military SIGINT satellite LUCH (OLYMP-K) 2 (2023-031A). It was launched on 12 March 2023, and like its predecessor LUCH (OLYMP-K) 1, it has since moved about along the geostationary belt, doing proximity operations near western commercial geostationary satellites.
Each two to four months, it is moved to a new target, where it stays in close proximity until moved to a new target again, behaviour in a similar fashion to the US satellite PAN/NEMESIS-1 in the past. It is probably clandestinely accessing and monitoring communication streams of the target satellites, and perhaps mapping contact networks. It can sometimes come very close to its target, to within a few to a few tens of kilometers (that is very close in space).
From September 2024 onwards it was positioned at 0.93 W close to Intelsat 1002, but on February 7, 2025, it started a drift eastwards. After a significant one-month drift over 62 degrees in longitude, it settled again on March 7 near 62 E, its new eavesdropping target being Intelsat 39 (2029-049B). This latest move is the largest since it was launched.
Due to a combination of flu, moonlight and the fact that the new position is barely above the eastern horizon for me, I have not been able to image it in its new position yet.
The diagram above shows the various repositionings of LUCH (OLYMP-K) 2 since it was launched. Since launch, it has taken up the following positions:
PERIOD LONG. NEAR
21-03-2023 24-03-2023 78.00 E (checkout)
07-04-2023 02-05-2023 58.00 E (checkout)
22-05-2023 25-09-2023 9.00 E EUTELSAT (KA SAT) 9A, EUTELSAT 9B
04-10-2023 04-12-2023 3.20 E EUTELSATt 3B
05-12-2023 26-03-2024 2.60 E EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS
01-04-2024 22-06-2024 4.75 E ASTRA 4A
01-07-2024 16-09-2024 0.54 W THOR 7
18-09-2024 07-02-2025 0.92 W INTELSAT 1002
07-03-2025 62.02 E INTELSAT 39
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