--- title: "Kosmos 2612 Stalks a Commercial Radar Satellite in Low-Earth Orbit, Uninvited" description: "For five days in October, a Russian military satellite circled ICEYE-X36, a radar spacecraft from a company that supplies Ukraine" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-10-19T20:54:17Z modified: 2026-10-20T01:57:38Z url: https://rews.cc/a/kosmos-2612-stalks-a-commercial-radar-satellite-in-low-earth-f7a94d language: en tags: ["space", "military", "russia", "satellites", "espionage", "tech"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Kosmos 2612 Stalks a Commercial Radar Satellite in Low-Earth Orbit, Uninvited *For five days in October, a Russian military satellite circled ICEYE-X36, a radar spacecraft from a company that supplies Ukraine* By Jan Sokol · October 19, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/kosmos-2612-stalks-a-commercial-radar-satellite-in-low-earth-f7a94d ## In brief - At least four of six satellites from an April Soyuz launch aligned their orbits with commercial radar satellite ICEYE-X36 - Kosmos 2612 approached from Oct. 15, held 2–3 km away by Oct. 16 and came within 500 m over the weekend, LeoLabs said - Public tracking data suggested a gap as small as about 26 m, which LeoLabs said it could not confirm or contradict - LeoLabs called it the first known unsanctioned rendezvous in low-Earth orbit but said hostile intent is not established - Iceye supplies radar imagery to Ukraine, but it has not been disclosed whether ICEYE-X36 itself serves Kyiv In April a Soyuz rocket lifted off from a spaceport in northern Russia carrying six satellites. Moscow said almost nothing about them. As [Stephen Clark reported for *Ars Technica*](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/russian-spacecraft-maneuvers-in-extreme-proximity-to-satellite-used-by-ukraine/), American military officials and independent analysts tracked them from the start, and within weeks they saw that at least four of the six had adjusted their orbits to line up with one commercial spacecraft: ICEYE-X36, a radar-imaging satellite operated from the United States. For months nothing changed. The Russian satellites rode along with it at a distance and did nothing more. Then, last week, one of them moved. ## Five days in October The satellite was Kosmos 2612. According to LeoLabs, a company whose global radar network tracks objects in low orbit as small as 2 centimetres, about the size of a marble, the approach began on October 15, when the Russian craft [closed from roughly 400 kilometres to about 210](https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/19/science/russian-satellite-iceye-x36-approach). By Friday it was holding station 2 to 3 kilometres from its target. For the next two days it shifted from a position ahead of the satellite to one behind it, and back again. Over the weekend the two came within 500 metres (1,640 feet) of each other, and “likely quite a bit closer than that,” said Adam Marsh, LeoLabs’ vice president of technical solutions. At times they were so close that the radars could hardly tell one spacecraft from the other. On October 18 and 19 Kosmos 2612 drew away, and LeoLabs confirmed that the close-proximity activity was over. ![Two satellites with extended solar panels orbit above Earth's curved blue horizon, with clouds and sunlight visible below against dark space.](https://rews.cc/img/50288fb11273f8c27c4ef99415226c534a05da3a.webp) Nobody yet agrees on exactly how close it came. Public tracking sites put the gap much narrower: [The War Zone](https://www.twz.com/news-features/russias-satellite-unprecedented-shadowing-of-a-very-particular-radar-imaging-satellite-is-a-big-deal), using data from satellitemap.space and orbitalradar.com, reported that the Russian craft may have passed within about 26 metres, some 85 feet. LeoLabs told the publication it could neither confirm nor contradict what other sources had stated publicly. What the company would say was that this was no accident of geometry. Satellites in low orbit pass near one another all the time. Operators call these passes conjunctions and treat them as a matter of collision risk. LeoLabs said Kosmos 2612 did something different: > “This was not a routine conjunction or ‘fly by.’ The sequence included a controlled approach, changes in relative position, close-proximity loitering, additional small maneuvers, and a controlled departure. The behavior is consistent with sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO).” LeoLabs described it as the first known rendezvous in low-Earth orbit carried out without the target’s consent. The space analyst Jonathan McDowell also said it could be the first time one spacecraft has approached another without permission. Marsh, [speaking to Breaking Defense](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/10/russian-satellite-stalked-iceye-spacecraft-in-potentially-dangerous-on-orbit-maneuvers/), went further: “This is the most advanced and potentially dangerous uncooperative RPO we’ve observed.” ![A massive radio telescope dish points toward a dark, cloud-filled night sky with two bright blue lights overhead.](https://rews.cc/img/93efa9385018053ac3497a8d191f8470fee02422.webp) ## An eye that sees through cloud ICEYE-X36 carries synthetic aperture radar, which builds images of the ground at night and through cloud, exactly the conditions in which an army prefers to move. Iceye, a company founded in Finland with offices in the United States and elsewhere, has supplied this kind of sight to Ukraine since August 2022, when a fundraising campaign by the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation gave Ukraine’s defence ministry access to one of its satellites. Nobody has said publicly whether X36 is one of the satellites working for Kyiv. A Ukrainian official [told Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/17/russia-ukraine-satellite-space) that the military works with Iceye but could not say whether this particular satellite supports Ukraine. The company said only: “We are aware of the situation and tracking it closely. Our constellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience.” One reflection, offered as no more than that: an army that watches its enemy will sooner or later be watched itself. Ukraine has spent this war building a second front above its own territory, out of commercial radar, [rented bandwidth](https://rews.cc/a/above-100mph-ukraine-s-starlink-went-dark-the-night-russian--9a621e) and [requests for military-grade satellite access](https://rews.cc/a/rubio-says-ukraine-s-request-for-starshield-access-is-under--bf4fca) that are still being negotiated in Washington. The trouble with relying on someone else’s spacecraft is that the other side can find them in orbit too, and Russia has now shown it can sit beside one. ![A giant metallic camera lens hovers among dark storm clouds, casting a bright blue beam onto rural fields below.](https://rews.cc/img/629388979295d2f0e821f6f14efd2fb75f40eafd.webp) ## What a shadow can do LeoLabs was careful. Its observations, it said, do not establish hostile intent: “While the intent remains uncertain, the behavior warrants continued monitoring.” No attack has been confirmed. Still, the company concluded that the manoeuvres showed capabilities that could be used to inspect, characterise or shadow another spacecraft, or potentially to interfere with it. [Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alarm-grows-over-russian-satellites-provocative-approach-to-u-s-owned-satellite/) set out what an approaching satellite can do to its target: photograph it, jam its communications, block its sensors, or physically disable it and push it out of orbit. There is also a slower kind of damage. If Iceye has to fire its thrusters to get away, every burn uses fuel, and that shortens the satellite’s working life. A stalker can wear down its target without ever touching it. Kosmos 2612 has now drawn away from ICEYE-X36. It was not alone up there, though. At least three other satellites from the same April launch were steered onto the same orbit in the spring.