In a recent tweet, the US Space Force said that a secret Russian satellite shot down in orbit and released a dangerous cloud of debris into Earth’s atmosphere.
The 18th Space Defense Squadron of the US Space Force tweeted that a covert Russian satellite launched nearly ten years ago has “broken up” in space.
The Kosmos 2499 spacecraft reportedly exploded on January 4 and released a dangerous cloud of debris into Earth’s atmosphere, according to the Space Force.
The military branch in charge of space operations declined to say why Kosmos 2499 broke apart. One user on social media did, however, pose a good question.
Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com, who was quoted by Business Insider and Space.com, claimed that Russia launched a rocket in late 2013 that purportedly carried three military communications satellites into orbit. However, it wasn’t until trackers for spacecraft discovered a fourth, enigmatic spacecraft (Kosmos 2499) that was also launched into orbit.
Russia is building a laser weapon in order to ‘soft kill’ the US spy satellites. The disclosure of Russia’s advanced laser weapon last year coincides with the announcement of Elon Musk, CEO of Space X, who said that his business could deploy more satellites than Western rivals could destroy.
Kosmos 2499 wasn’t a “killer satellite,” the head of Roscosmos promised world leaders in 2014, according to Zak. The satellite’s purpose was never made public by Roscosmos.
According to Brian Weeden, a space junk specialist at the Secure World Foundation, this is probably not a disastrous occurrence in terms of space debris.