Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris

Artist's illustration of a satellite breakup in Earth orbit.
Artist's illustration of a satellite breakup in Earth orbit. (Image credit: ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

A mysterious Russian satellite broke apart early last month, creating a cloud of debris that could linger in Earth orbit for a while.

The Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on the night of Jan. 3, according to the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron (18th SDS), which tracks human-made objects in orbit.

The breakup event generated at least 85 pieces of trackable debris, 18th SDS said via Twitter on Monday (Feb. 6). That cloud of space junk is orbiting 726 miles (1,169 kilometers) above Earth — so high that it'll likely take a century or more for atmosphere drag to bring it down. 

Related: Getting space junk under control may require an attitude shift

The 18th SDS did not speculate about the cause of the breakup. And that's far from the only mystery surrounding Kosmos 2499.

The satellite launched to Earth orbit in May 2014 atop a Russian Rockot vehicle along with three Rodnik military communications satellites, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com's Anatoly Zak

Kosmos 2499 wasn't officially on the launch manifest; U.S. satellite trackers initially cataloged it as a piece of debris called Object E, Zak wrote. But then the "debris" began making maneuvers, apparently closing in on the Rockot's Briz-M upper stage.

"By the end of October [2014], the U.S. officially re-classified Object E as 'payload' instead of a 'fragment' and finally cataloged it as Kosmos 2499 (with a 'translated' spelling 'COSMOS 2499')," Zak wrote. "The U.S. military was now rechecking orbital parameters of the mysterious satellite three or four times a day!"

Analyses of orbital elements indicate that Kosmos 2499 got within just 0.47 miles (0.76 kilometers) of the Briz-M on Nov. 9, 2014, according to Zak. The spacecraft soon backed off but made an even closer approach on Nov. 25, coming within 0.33 miles (0.53 km) of the rocket body.

Such activities led to speculation that Kosmos 2499 and Kosmos 2491, a seemingly similar object that launched to Earth orbit in December 2013, were testing tech that could allow spacecraft to chase down and perhaps even disable other satellites. Indeed, Oleg Ostapenko, then the head of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, addressed such rumors at a press conference in December 2014.

"According to Ostapenko, the satellites were developed in cooperation between Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences and were used for peaceful purposes, including unspecified research by educational institutions," Zak wrote. "'They completed their mission,' Ostapenko said, without elaborating what that mission had been."

Despite Ostapenko's words, Kosmos 2499 remained active, off and on, for several more years. For example, the satellite — which ground observations suggest was less than 1 foot (0.3 meters) wide — conducted some maneuvers in early 2017, according to Zak.

But Kosmos 2499's maneuvering days are now done, as the satellite has given up the ghost. And its death has added yet more debris to an already cluttered environment. 

According to the European Space Agency, about 36,500 pieces of space junk at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide zoom around our planet. And those are just the objects big enough to be tracked; Earth orbit likely hosts more than 130 million objects at least 1 millimeter across. 

Even the shards at the low end of that size spectrum can do damage to satellites and other spacecraft, considering how fast orbiting objects move. For example, the International Space Station, which orbits at an average altitude of roughly 250 miles (400 km), zooms around the planet at about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph).

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, or on Facebook and Instagram. 

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Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

  • DeepDivePilot
    Admin said:
    The mysterious Russian satellite Kosmos 2499 broke apart in early January, and the U.S. Space Force is already 85 pieces of debris from the incident.

    Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris : Read more
    Amazing they can detect a Russian piece of equipment falling apart in space....but can't detect a Chinese balloon...lol...!
    Reply
  • Space Ninja
    Admin said:
    The mysterious Russian satellite Kosmos 2499 broke apart in early January, and the U.S. Space Force is already 85 pieces of debris from the incident.

    Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris : Read more
    Ars Technica has 87 comments, 87 people engaging in a discussion of the same topic. Here at Space.com? Two people. Why? Because you've made commenting so cumbersome.
    Reply
  • Laser
    If you want to identify accurate and precisely the orbital maneuver just use the laser sensor. You have it in US.
    Admin said:
    The mysterious Russian satellite Kosmos 2499 broke apart in early January, and the U.S. Space Force is already 85 pieces of debris from the incident.

    Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris : Read more

    If you want to identify accurate and precisely the orbital maneuver just use the laser sensor. You have it in US.
    Reply
  • Pogo
    If it wasn’t done intentionally by someone, it could have been a small meteoroid, or more likely orbital debris.
    85 trackable objects? That means at least a couple thousand untrackable ones.
    Reply
  • Leidos
    It seems like this is a problem for a Space Force. I think some research into a space vacuum would be a good idea. You could use reverse GPS to move a catch vehicle into position, then catch these pieces of junk and remove them from the system. It doesn't seem like it would be that big a deal to achieve working with Space X and maybe using the x37b to raise a mast that could fire a counter burn as it approached and then pull it in and head home. It's gonna have to be done sometime, so now sounds like a time. If I had input in that arena, I would reschedule missions to look at this intercept type before it becomes bumper pool up there with Russian space junk. Kevlar bag on a mast. How big is the piece? What is the velocity and ballistic energy? How strong does the Kevlar bag have to be? Can the x35b carry a mast large enough to do this? Seems like its more of a job for the old shuttle program. Maybe make an old shuttle autonomous. use it for catch missions. Just a thought. Also, maybe look at using some sails between two or more rockets to effectively create a filter for certain high-traffic altitudes.
    Reply
  • Cisventure Astronot
    Space Ninja said:
    Ars Technica has 87 comments, 87 people engaging in a discussion of the same topic. Here at Space.com? Two people. Why? Because you've made commenting so cumbersome.

    How is it more cumbersome? Also, it should be noted that Ars Technica is more general, thus it has a more general audience, and from a glance it looks like they're mostly commenting jokes, creating conspiracy theories, and debunking said theories. Many of which being duplicates.

    For the record, the difference in membership is 478 k VS 33 k. also, this is off-topic.
    Reply