After the U.S. expressed concern to Moscow, the pair moved away from the KH-11. Then on July 15, with the U.S. analysts still tracking them, the Russian satellite, Cosmos 2543, fired a projectile into outer space.
According to Time magazine, the Russian satellite that fired the projectile had itself detached from another satellite that was launched by Moscow in November. The newsweekly says that in January both satellites moved uncomfortably close to a powerful U.S. spy satellite named KH-11. After it got up close and personal to KH-11, the action was formally protested by the U.S. State Department.
According to Gen. Raymond, who is the Space Force’s chief of space operations and commander of the U.S. Space Command, the Russian satellite system used in the test is the same one that prompted the U.S. to contact Russia earlier this year.
Kremlin denies weapon test
Russia’s space agency ROSCOSMOS has confirmed that on November 25, a satellite was launched by a Soyuz-2 rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome launch site located 500 miles north of Moscow.
