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Space The Military

Russian Satellite Linked to Its Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon Program Appears Out of Control, Analyst says (msn.com) 72

Posted by EditorDavid from the war-of-the-machines dept.
An anonymous reader shared this report from Reuters: The secretive Russian satellite in space that U.S. officials believe is connected to a nuclear anti-satellite weapon program has appeared to be spinning uncontrollably, suggesting it may no longer be functioning in what could be a setback for Moscow's space weapon efforts, according to U.S. analysts... [The Cosmos 2553 satellite launched in 2022] has had various bouts of what appears to be errant spinning over the past year, according to Doppler radar data from space-tracking firm LeoLabs and optical data from Slingshot Aerospace shared with Reuters.

Believed to be a radar satellite for Russian intelligence as well as a radiation testing platform, the satellite last year became the center of U.S. allegations that Russia for years has been developing a nuclear weapon capable of destroying entire satellite networks, such as SpaceX's vast Starlink internet system that Ukrainian troops have been using. U.S. officials assess Cosmos 2553's purpose, though not itself a weapon, is to aid Russia's development of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon. Russia has denied it is developing such a weapon and says Cosmos 2553 is for research purposes....

"This observation strongly suggests the satellite is no longer operational," the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said of LeoLabs' analysis in its annual Space Threat Assessment published on Friday.

Russian Satellite Linked to Its Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon Program Appears Out of Control, Analyst says More | Reply

Russian Satellite Linked to Its Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon Program Appears Out of Control, Analyst says

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  • It the best defense.

    "oops, sorry our satellite collided with your spy satellite by accident. It was acting off for a few months now..."

  • In Soviet Russia (Score:3)

    by zawarski ( 1381571 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @07:08PM (#65335611)
    Meh. I got nuthin.

  • go to defcon 3

  • Call the ... (Score:3)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @07:32PM (#65335649)

    ... Space Cowboys.

    If any are still alive.

  • FIVE DOLLARS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @08:02PM (#65335685)

    Russia could spend FIVE DOLLARS on a teeny tiny bit more research and development on their space abacus.

    OR

    They could spend FIVE DOLLARS on a couple more rounds for men to be sent to Ukraine to cause death, some of it their own.

    They made that decision 3 years ago.

    The only idiot still believing their shit is Donald Trump. He'd do more to "help" but he has "the bone spur thingie."
    Yeah and Rachel Dolezal is Black. But at least she doesn't call her kid a "hot piece of ass".

  • So fun fact uranium degrades (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @08:46PM (#65335727)
    And with it nuclear weapons. So we are now in a situation where the Mexican standoff we've all been living through for the last 75 plus years might or might not get broken. Because countries may not actually have the nuclear arsenals they claim to have.

    And here's the scarier part, they might still have some or even all of their nuclear arsenal but another country besides that they don't and that they want that land. Remember that war is really just stealing other people's land. And as our civilization grinds to a halt and economy start to collapse countries will seek to expand their borders in order to loot other countries to keep their economies functional.

    Point being One Way or another we're going to find out whether or not those nukes still work.

    • You're thinking of tritium (Score:4, Informative)

      by SubmergedInTech ( 7710960 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @10:28PM (#65335833)

      Half-lives:

      U-235: 700 million years
      Pu-239: 24 thousand years
      Tritium: 12 years

      But most modern fusion weapons use lithium deuteride instead of tritium, and Li-7 and H-2 are both stable.

      The parts of modern weapons which degrade are the explosives and triggering mechanism. If the explosion isn't perfectly symmetrical, the weapon fizzles.

      And the missiles the warheads launch on.

      That's why DoE labs periodically removes the fissionable pit from a nuclear warhead, reassembles it with an inert pit, and blows up the explosives to see if they still work. And why we periodically launch missiles from subs or land for testing.

      However, if Russian nukes are anything like their reactive armor as seen in Ukraine, some of those warheads and missiles are filled with bricks and sand. Of course, that just means they'll launch enough of them to guarantee some working ones make it to their targets.

      • Modern US weapons use tritium in the fission stage ("boosting") to increase the neutron yield and the total weapon yield relative to size and mass. This is stored in a metal reservoir. The reservoir must be removed and reprocessed periodically, to remove decay product helium 3 (valuable) and replace with fresh tritium.
        • Yeah I think it's possible the United States has working nuclear weapons but I am not at all convinced Russia or Pakistan or India does.

          Frighteningly I am pretty sure Israel does not and even if they do I'm pretty sure the rest of the world could be convinced they don't. And with the right wing continuously taking over more and more governments I think it's only a matter of time before they turn on the Jewish people again because, well when the shit hits the fan because incompetent right-wing fools cras

    • Point being One Way or another we're going to find out whether or not those nukes still work.

      You are absolutely 100% correct. :( :( :( :( :( :(

  • I've been seeing misinformation that the belt (name currently eludes me) is not a problem. Anyone else seen this? I'm digging up a link now, but it's on LinkedIn, so I have to export my history to csv to find it, and for some reason they charge 24 hours for that. Because it's 2025.

  • ... 'out of control' towards any hostile nation from a russian perspective?

  • Another fine product from Roscosmos.

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