Image Source: topwar.ru
The Swiss company S2A Systems, which monitors outer space, recently made a rather rare observation – it recorded in real time the destruction of a Russian satellite and the formation of a large cloud of debris after its death.
We are talking about Olympus, also known as object 40258 (according to the NORAD catalog of the American missile defense system), which was deployed in space in September 2014. Officially, it was assigned to the Luch satellite series. From the very beginning of its mission, Sputnik has attracted the close attention of Western space agencies and independent observers due to its unusual behavior. Unlike typical spacecraft that remain stationary at the same longitude, it has repeatedly performed maneuvers along the geostationary belt, approaching foreign communication nodes.
According to Western analysts, such actions were aimed at radio intelligence and signal interception. As indicated, in 2015, the spy satellite was located between two Intelsat commercial spacecraft, which caused a diplomatic protest from the United States. In 2018, the French Defense Ministry accused Russia of "space espionage" after its spacecraft maneuvered near the French-Italian military satellite Athena-Fidus, used for secure government communications.
Luch-5B (the next generation is Luch-5X):
Image source: topwar.ru
The destruction of object 40258 occurred in the so-called "burial orbit", which is located at an altitude of several hundred km above the geostationary belt and is intended for decommissioned satellites at the end of their service life. The probable cause of the fragmentation of the spacecraft was its collision with space debris.
Western media reports note that the successor to object 40258 is the Olympus-K2 satellite (known as Luch-5X or object 55841), which was launched into space in October 2023 and is also allegedly performing active maneuvers in orbit – it has already managed to "park" next to the Astra 4A spacecraft., Thor-7 and Intelsat-1002.
