Bart Hendrickx

The Kosmos-2558 satellite photographed in orbit. Source Two Russian satellites launched in 2022 and 2024 have been monitoring two big American electro-optical reconnaissance satellites orbiting several dozen kilometers above them. Their missions are reminiscent of two others launched in 2017 and 2019. All that Russia has officially revealed about their objectives is that they are intended for Earth remote sensing and inspection of other satellites in orbit.

Multiple beam torus antenna at the GRU station in Klimovsk. Source All of the GRU and KGB eavesdropping stations have a wide variety of parabolic dish antennas. Some details are available on the antennas built in the Soviet days for the GRU’s Zvezda network. [1] The first Zvezda station near Ventspils in Latvia featured three antennas: a 32-meter antenna called TNA-400, a 16-meter antenna named TNA-110, and an 8-meter antenna designated TNA-97.

Taijing-3-02, a Chinese-built satellite that is possibly being operated by Russia under the name Stilsat-1. Source A satellite owned and operated by Russia has been snapping high-resolution images of Earth since last year, mainly to support the country’s war effort in Ukraine. The Russians call it Stilsat-1, but no satellite by that name has been officially announced as such after launch or registered with the United Nations.