Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

The ICEYE space firm owns the world’s largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation.
Image credit: ICEYE

Russia’s Cosmos-2612 satellite has made a series of maneuvers that have made it almost perfectly co-planar with the radar satellite ICEYE-X36.

ICEYE is natively European, founded in Finland.

Bart Hendrickx, a longtime observer of the Russian space program, reports that, in the past two days or so, the Russian spacecraft has made a further orbit adjustment. That change has now brought it in the immediate vicinity of the ICEYE satellite.

According to the latest TLE sets, the Russian satellite is now just about 0.932 miles (1.5 kilometers) from ICEYE and getting closer. A two-line element set (TLE) is a data format that provides the orbital parameters of a satellite.

War in Ukraine

Hendrickx notes that among duties, ICEYE satellites are used to provide intelligence data to Ukraine’s armed forces.

ICEYE satellites provide Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR).
Image credit: ICEYE

The ICEYE space firm owns the world’s largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation.

As explained on the ICEYE website, the war in Ukraine proved that satellite constellations are a core component of modern Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR).

“ICEYE systems are directly supporting strike planning and battlefield decisions across thousands of kilometers of frontline. Persistent, all-weather, and beyond the reach of electronic warfare.”