It is a tale that could have come from the cold war. A mysterious object launched by the Russian military is being tracked by western space agencies, stoking fears over the revival of a defunct Kremlin project to destroy satellites. 
 
 For the past few weeks, amateur astronomers and satellite-trackers in Russia and the west have followed the unusual manoeuvres of Object 2014-28E, watching it guide itself towards other Russian space objects. The pattern appeared to culminate last weekend in a rendezvous with the remains of the rocket stage that launched it. 
 
 The object had originally been classed as space debris, propelled into orbit as part of a Russian rocket launch in May to add three Rodnik communications satellites to an existing military constellation. The US military is now tracking it under the Norad designation 39765. 
 
 Its purpose is unknown, and could be civilian: a project to hoover up space junk, for example. Or a vehicle to repair or refuel existing satellites. But interest has been piqued because Russia did not declare its launch – and by the object’s peculiar, and very active, precision movements across the skies. 
 
 Russia officially mothballed its anti-satellite weaponry programme – Istrebitel Sputnikov or satellite killer – after the fall of the iron curtain, though its expertise has not entirely disappeared. Indeed, military officials have publicly stated in the past that they would restart research in the event of a deterioration in relations with the US over anti-missile defence treaties. In 2010, Oleg Ostapenko, commander of Russia’s space forces, and now head of its space agency, said Russia was again developing “inspection” and “strike” satellites. 
 
 Moscow’s ministry of defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 “Whatever it is, [Object 2014-28E] looks experimental,” said Patricia Lewis, research director at think-tank Chatham House and an expert in space security. “It could have a number of functions, some civilian and some military. One possibility is for some kind of grabber bar. Another would be kinetic pellets which shoot out at another satellite. Or possibly there could be a satellite-to-satellite cyber attack or jamming.” 
 
 In a week when the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft landed a probe on a comet, the peregrinations of 2014-28E could seem insignificant, but they highlight an area of growing – if so far little publicised – concern for defence strategists: the weaponisation of space. 
 
 Having the ability to destroy or degrade an opponent’s satellite communications has been regarded as a powerful military capability since the space race began but, after the collapse of the iron curtain, many of the secret research projects Soviet and US engineers were working on were quietly shelved. In the past few years, however, interest in space weapons has revived. 
 
 “It would be odd if space were to remain the one area that [militaries] don’t get their hands on,” says Ms Lewis. Cyber attacks on satellites are already a reality, she points out: last week, hackers linked to the Chinese government infiltrated US federal weather satellites. 
 
 Russia has in the past been at the forefront of efforts to try to secure an international treaty to prevent weapons being deployed in space, but its efforts have fallen on stony ground. 
 
 Amid rapid advances by other foreign powers, and the recent deterioration in relations between Moscow and the west, plans to revive the IS programme would make strategic sense, said one Russian military expert. 
 
 As far back as 2007, the Chinese showed they had the ability to shoot down satellites with rockets and in 2008 the US demonstrated it had the same capability. 
 
 More recently, in May this year, a Chinese satellite known as Shijian 15 began to exhibit unusual propulsion capabilities and eventually intercepted another Chinese satellite, Shijian 7. 
 
 “The experiment was linked to the possible use of a remote capture arm and close proximity operations,” said Max White, a member of the Kettering group of astronomers, which made a name for itself in the 1960s by pinpointing the location of Soviet spy satellite launches. “Both can have peaceful as well as military nuances, with the former for refuelling in space, and the latter for disabling an active payload belonging to a foreign nation, potentially without causing a debris cloud. 
 
 “Whether the Russians feel they need to demonstrate such capability is a matter for debate,” Mr White added. He, too, has been following the activities of object 2014-28E. 
 
 In a signal of international sensitivities over the prospect of anti-satellite technologies being rapidly developed, a Chinese missile test this year drew an unusually fiery response from the Pentagon. US authorities said they had “high confidence” that a July launch was a test for a ground-based weapon to strike a satellite, accusing the Chinese of “destabilising actions”. China’s test was later also condemned by the EU. 
 
 Additional reporting: Kathrin Hille ||||| 
 
 An artist’s conception of a Soviet anti-satellite weapon destroying a satellite in 1984. (Defense Department Photo) 
 
 There was a time, not too long ago, when some of the world’s brilliant rocket scientists didn’t think of space as something to conquer, nor monetize, nor explore — but as a means to make war. During the Cold War in the 1960s, they eyed outer space as a potential theater of conflict, where human-piloted space vessels would engage in gravity-free dogfights and fire missiles. The ambitions were unrealistic. But they did nonetheless give birth to a Soviet anti-satellite weaponry program simply called “Istrebitel Sputnikov” — the “satellite killer.” 
 
 It was thought the killer was retired. It was thought the Soviet empire’s collapse had grounded it. But now, as the Financial Times first reported, there are whispers of its return out there in the blackness of space. 
 
 As news of the Virgin Galactic crash, Antares explosion and Rosetta exploration filled science pages, another space drama has quietly unfurled. In May, Russia launched a rocket to add several satellites to its existing constellation. In the process, it deployed what was first believed to be a piece of space debris but has now become a matter of great speculation. 
 
 “I have no idea what it is!” space security expert Patricia Lewis of the think-tank Chatham House told The Washington Post in a phone interview. 
 
 Few do. Russia did not declare its orbit, FT reported, and now the U.S. military, space experts and amateur sleuths have been closely tracking its movements, each of which has been deliberate and precise. The unidentified satellite — called Object 2014-28E — recently navigated toward other Russian space objects, its voyage culminating in its recent hookup with the remains of the rocket stage that originally launched it. 
 
 In May, Russia launched a rocket to add several satellites to its existing constellation. In the process, it deployed what was first believed to be a piece of space debris but has now become a matter of great speculation. (tvzvezda.ru) 
 
 The satellite could be nothing. It could be space junk. It could be a search-and-rescue mission or some innocuous method to clear space debris — the bane of satellite navigation. Or it could be something more. The Russian Ministry of Defense didn’t immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment. 
 
 “There’s always confusion with these sort of things, because no one knows exactly what these satellites are up to,” space expert Robert Christy, once a member of the famed Kettering Group of astronomers, told The Post. 
 
 Despite that confusion, every expert interviewed agreed that such satellites, which the Chinese use as well, may be the latest chapter in the militarization of space — first conceived as something akin to science fiction that has now evolved into subtler cyberwarfare, hinging on debilitating vital satellite systems. Virtually every modern technology — cellphones, map services, television shows and any number of communication services — hinges on satellites. Targeting them could cripple a nation’s abilities to conduct its military or shut down crucial global communication services. 
 
 “Imagine if you were having a Katrina episode and all of your satellites suddenly got jammed,” Lewis said. “Just imagine that.” 
 
 Lewis said there are several explanations for the mysterious Russian satellite. Some benign. Some not. Each possible use would be experimental. One of them, she said, involves the clearance of debris — almost like a space vacuum. Many space-bound nations “are looking at how to do this,” Lewis said. Or the mission could have something to do with search and rescue. Other possibilities are substantially more bellicose. “This satellite could be used as some sort of anti-satellite weapon. Or it could be that you use this to cyber-jam the satellites to grill them and take control of them, and that way you just leave the satellite dead,” Lewis said. 
 
 But both options make little sense, she continued. After all, you don’t need to shoot a satellite into space to “cyber-jam” other satellites. Just look at the Chinese. They just hacked U.S. weather systems without launching their own satellites — and did so right here from the ground. And destroying a satellite would create so much debris that “it would affect your own satellites’ surveillance and achieve a null goal.” 
 
 So what gives? The answer may be an amalgam of all possibilities. If the satellite has the capacity to clear debris or perform some search missions, it can also be used for other purposes, Christy said. “This technology could be used in one way, which is really benign or peaceful, but it can have many other uses,” said Christy, who has been monitoring the satellite since the beginning. “If it can get up close to someone else’s satellite or orbit alongside, it can go and bang and destroy the thing. If you can go and do clandestine things, imagine if it was packed with explosives and shrapnel — you could destroy the satellite.” 
 
 It’s an idea that has been around for awhile. In 1960, the Soviet Union destroyed an American U-2 spy plane, sparking an international scandal that ultimately gave life to ambitions to do the same to spy satellites. Several years later, on Nov. 1, 1963, the Soviets sent into space their first killer satellite to see if it could move with agility and even approach and destroy an enemy satellite. The mission was “in response to the militarization of space by the USA,” one official Russian source said at the time, according to Russian Space Web. 
 
 The militarization of space hasn’t ceased in the intervening decades, though it has morphed. “The USSR was [once] developing inspection and strike spacecraft,” Oleg Ostapenko, Russia’s commander of space forces, said in 2010, according to Popular Mechanics. He explained that Russia would be ready for space war. “There should be no war in space, but we are military people and should be ready. … Trust me, we would be able to respond quickly and adequately.” 
 
 And the satellite that Russians now control has shown that it can move both quickly and more than adequately. 
 
 Natasha Abbakumova in Moscow contributed to this report.
– The US military is among those tracking an object Russia recently sent into space. Object 2014-28E, which has been moving toward other Russian space objects, was at first thought to be simply debris, the Financial Times reports. It could be intended to repair satellites already in space, or it could be a sort of vacuum cleaner to get rid of space junk. Or it could have a military purpose, expert Patricia Lewis tells the paper, noting the possibility of "kinetic pellets which shoot out at another satellite" or involvement in "satellite-to-satellite cyber attack or jamming." The object entered orbit when Russia launched a rocket in May to add communications satellites to military gear already in space. After the Iron Curtain fell, the country shelved a military program known as Istrebitel Sputnikov, or "satellite killer," and Moscow has previously sought a treaty against sending weapons into space. But military officials have suggested in the past that if relations with the US were to become strained, new research into space weaponry would be a possibility, the FT notes. "There should be no war in space, but we are military people and should be ready," Russia's space commander said in 2010, as per the Washington Post. "Trust me, we would be able to respond quickly and adequately." Lewis offers a disturbing scenario to the Post: "Imagine if you were having a Katrina episode and all of your satellites suddenly got jammed."