The United States says Russia has launched a satellite that US intelligence officials believe to be a weapon capable of inspecting and attacking other satellites.
A Soyuz rocket blasted off from Russia’s Plesetsk launch site, about 800km (500 miles) north of Moscow, on Thursday, deploying in low Earth orbit at least nine satellites, including COSMOS 2576, a type of Russian military “inspector” spacecraft US officials have long condemned as exhibiting reckless space behaviour.
“We have observed nominal activity and assess it is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit,” a spokesperson for US Space Command, part of the US Department of Defense, said in a statement on…
