An example of that came in July 2020. Russia’s Kosmos 2542 military satellite had been ‘stalking’ an American satellite, USA 245, at times coming within 150 kilometres of it, a distance regarded as close. It then released a mini satellite from within it – Kosmos 2543. The US military calls these ‘Russian dolls’. This ‘baby’ Kosmos also shadowed the American spacecraft before manoeuvring towards a third Russian satellite. It then appeared to fire a high-speed projectile travelling at about 700 kilometres an hour. The Kremlin says it was simply inspecting the condition of its satellites, but the
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