WW3 fears as Russia reactivates satellites that could be adapted to … – Express.co.uk

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As political tensions across the globe continues to rise, the western powerhouses have been keeping an eye on Russian activity and were surprised to see the reactivated three satellites in space.

The satellites, Kosmos-2491, Kosmos-2499 and Kosmos-2504, have been inactive for a few years, but they are now thought to be back online.

Suspicions were raised when last month, Kosmos-2504, which had gone offline in October 2015, travelled completely off its orbit to come within 1,200 metres of a Chinese weather satellite that China destroyed as part of an anti-satellite rocket test in 2007.

Kosmos-2499 has also been manoeuvring in an odd fashion in recent months.

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Anatoly Zak, a Russian-born journalist and space historian, told the publication there is a chance Russia is preparing to use the satellites as weapons.

He said: Looking at the history of space technology, it often starts with a small and cheap satellite that's easy to launch, then the same technology gets incorporated into something larger.

You can probably equip them with lasers, maybe put some explosives on them.

If [one] comes very close to some military satellite, it probably can do some harm.

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Dr Laura Grego, a space expert with the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said Russia may have been keeping the satellites purposefully offline as to not raise suspicions.

She told the Daily Beast: I do find it very interesting the satellite would go dormant for two years and then come back to life to manoeuvre.

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New Zealand, however secluded, has a stable democracy and is not involved in any major world conflicts

One strategy to keep satellites stealthy is to pretend they are debris, i.e. not to have them manoeuvre at all at first, and then come to life later.

To be confident this works, you might want to be able to test if your equipment works after being idle for months or years.

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WW3 fears as Russia reactivates satellites that could be adapted to ... - Express.co.uk