Luch-Olymp Russian Military satellite

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The French defence minister has accused Russia of attempting to intercept France’s satellite communications, calling it an act of espionage.

Florence Parly said Russia tried to intercept transmissions and spy on a satellite providing secure communications for the French military last year.

In a speech outlining France’s space policy and security issues, Parly said that the Athena-Fidus satellite, operated jointly by France and Italy, was approached “a bit too closely” by Russia’s Luch-Olymp craft, known for its advanced listening capacity.

“It got so close that we might have imagined it was trying to intercept our communications,” she added. “Trying to listen to your neighbours is not only unfriendly, it’s an act of espionage.”

Parly said officials took the “appropriate measures” and continued to monitor the satellite after it left, and observed it manoeuvring near other targets as well, she said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/07/france-accuses-russia-spying-satellite-communications-espionage
 
Here’s the BBC article on the same story this is an interesting bit from it.

Ms Parly said France was still monitoring the Luch-Olymp "and we noted that it continued to move actively in the following months close to other targets".
It is the same type of Russian satellite as that which approached the US satellites in 2015, but may not be the exact same one.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45448261
 
This satellite was launched in September 2014 and has manoeuvred extensively in geostationary orbit. It was in the vicinity of Athena-Fidus from October last year until January. It appears to be still operational, with the most recent manoeuvre in June-July. The behaviour certainly suggests that it is shadowing other communications satellites to listen in on their traffic. The US military has operated a system called Nemesis from 2009 with a similar mission, and the Chinese Shi Jian 17 satellite launched in 2016 may also be for this purpose.
 
gwiz said:
This satellite was launched in September 2014 and has manoeuvred extensively in geostationary orbit. It was in the vicinity of Athena-Fidus from October last year until January. It appears to be still operational, with the most recent manoeuvre in June-July. The behaviour certainly suggests that it is shadowing other communications satellites to listen in on their traffic. The US military has operated a system called Nemesis from 2009 with a similar mission, and the Chinese Shi Jian 17 satellite launched in 2016 may also be for this purpose.
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I have heard rumors that this Russian capability was assumed by western intelligence analysts to date from at least the mid-1990s.
 
Jonathan McDonell tweeted on this topic a little while back with additional information:
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1038147610073341953
 
blackstar said:
gwiz said:
This satellite was launched in September 2014 and has manoeuvred extensively in geostationary orbit. It was in the vicinity of Athena-Fidus from October last year until January. It appears to be still operational, with the most recent manoeuvre in June-July. The behaviour certainly suggests that it is shadowing other communications satellites to listen in on their traffic. The US military has operated a system called Nemesis from 2009 with a similar mission, and the Chinese Shi Jian 17 satellite launched in 2016 may also be for this purpose.
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I have heard rumors that this Russian capability was assumed by western intelligence analysts to date from at least the mid-1990s.
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Yes, these satellites have been launched since 1995.Maybe that was way they found the codes for the French cruise missiles and that is why they were so disabled in the war with Syria
 
After spending nearly four months at 2.6°E (right next to Eutelsat Konner VHTS), Luch-5X has relocated to 4.6°E. This is close to Astra 4A, which is at 4.8°E. Astra 4A (launched as Sirius 4 back in 2007) provides digital television and radio broadcasts, data and interactive services to Nordic countries, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. An important customer is Ukraine.

The relocation comes as Ukrainian broadcasters reported jamming of some of the Astra A4 signals last Thursday.

https://belsat.eu/en/news/29-03-202...ch-led-to-the-jamming-of-the-belsat-tv-signal
https://twitter.com/x/status/1779268451032236246

https://twitter.com/x/status/1780590277519929573
View: https://twitter.com/MrKovalenko/status/1780590277519929573
 
Germany's defence minister has warned his country's satellites are being shadowed by Russian satellites.

Boris Pistorius cited concerns over two Luch/Olymp satellites near Intelsat satellites used by German armed forces and others.

He told a Berlin space conference: "Russia and China have expanded their capabilities for warfare in space rapidly over the past years.

"They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them."

He said Germany's military had already been targeted by jamming attacks.
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https://news.sky.com/story/flatplan-13437664
 
Ars Technica: High above the equator, Russia is stalking satellites used by NATO armed forces [Sep 25]

Last September, this second Russian eavesdropping satellite maneuvered close to an Intelsat satellite named Intelsat 10-02, coming as close as 1 kilometer (about 3,300 feet) from it in January, according to a CSIS space threat assessment. Notably, Intelsat 10-02 was docked with a commercial servicing spacecraft at the time, and in a twist of irony, was launched by a Russian rocket in 2004.

The same Luch/Olymp satellite then fired its thrusters to begin drifting to another slot thousands of miles away to sidle up next to another Intelsat bird named Intelsat 39.

Intelsat 10-02 and Intelsat 39 each provide C-band and Ku-band services across Europe and the Middle East, including Ukraine.
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Update on the LUCH (OLYMP) #40258 fragmentation event of 2026-01-30
Here, a short update on the fragmentation event of LUCH (OLYMP) #40258 that began at 06:09:03 UTC on 2026-01-30.

The analysis of our recordings showed a whole series of events that occurred within a period of about 40 minutes.
The different events during the first 40 minutes.

The series of events started at 06:09:03 with an initial increase in luminosity and a plume that was probably caused by venting or fuel loss and lasted for several seconds. 2 seconds later the first debris could be detected and moved radially away from the parent object.

The next burst occurred at 06:14:16, followed by larger and smaller energetic events at 06:16:24, 06:20:32, 06:22:07, 06:22:59, 06:36:32, 06:44:14, 06:45:46 and 06:48:45, with the plumes of 06:36:32 and 06:44:14 being the largest in dimension.

Immediately with the first event, a rotation of the Satellite could be observed, which increased over time, especially after the events at 06:22:59 (~38 seconds) and 06:45:46 (~28 seconds).

(Image #1) Light curve from 2026-02-05

Our observations of the rotation during the past few days show a stable rotation pattern, with a period today of 27.9 seconds.

In total, we were able to detect 18 pieces of debris, whereby the size of the instrument used and the relatively short exposure time were a limiting factor.

Image #2: The situation on 2026-01-30 08:24:51 UTC

We have been able to track one piece of debris to date, and we classify two additional pieces as potential candidates. A detailed analysis of the trajectory of all detected objects shortly after fragmentation is ongoing.

Image #3: The reason for this fragmentation still remains unclear:

It could have been triggered by a small object (space debris or a meteoroid). If such an object impacts with sufficient velocity, enough energy can be released to trigger this type of event.

An internal event caused by insufficient passivation (battery or residual propellant) is equally possible. The fact that there was apparently still a noticeable amount of remaining fuel during the events of January 30, and that no clear rotation was observed before the event, could be an indication of this.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2019492330454356320
View: https://twitter.com/s2a_systems/status/2019492330454356320
 

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