A Russian aerospace commander has sensationally claimed that some spy satellites are masquerading as space junk in Earth orbit . The official refused to comment on how many such satellites there were , and which countries were operating them . It suggests there could be more satellites than thought monitoring different countries on Earth . The claim was made by the commander of Russian Space Command . Oleg Maidanovich said someone was hiding satellites as space junk ( artist 's illustration of a satellite shown ) . But in a film he refused to name the country behind the ruse . The claims were made by the commander of Russian Space Command , Oleg Maidanovich . He was speaking on a film called ‘ Space Special Forces ’ during a tour of Russia ’ s main centre for aerospace intelligence in Krasnoznamensk , near Moscow . ‘ Very recently , specialists of the department of space intelligence centre uncovered a newly created group of space satellites ... made for radio-technical reconnaissance of equipment on Russian territory , ’ he said . A reconnaissance satellite is unofficially referred to as a spy satellite . They are Earth observation satellites or communications satellites traditionally used for military or intelligence purposes . Some are used to simply take images from the ground , while others relay information from one place to another . Many such satellites are used today for high-resolution photography of certain areas , for scientific or defense purposes . The film goes on to state that there ‘ are cases when a space satellite pretends to be space junk for years and then wakes up and starts working at the right moment. ’ The comments were made yesterday on ‘ Space Day ’ , when Russia commemorated the first human spaceflight - Yuri Gagarin , on 12 April 1961 . Since then hundreds of rockets have been launched into space – and Russia itself now has about 140 satellites operating in orbit . Their Space Command is a division of the military responsible for warning of missile and air strikes and controlling Russia 's defence satellites . It monitors about 20,000 objects orbiting the planet , out of a total of 100,000 significant objects . Some objects are believed to have a military purpose - but it ’ s not quite clear what the purpose of the satellites disguised as space junk are . MailOnline has asked the Russian space agency ( Roscosmos ) and Space Command for further information on the claim . The comments were made yesterday on ‘ Space Day ’ , when Russia commemorated the first human spaceflight - Yuri Gagarin ( pictured ) , on 12 April 1961 . Since then hundreds of rockets have been launched into space - and Russia itself now has about 140 satellites operating in orbit .
Claim was made by the commander of Russian Space Command . Oleg Maidanovich said someone was hiding satellites as space junk . But in a film he refused to name the country behind the ruse . Comments came on the anniversary of Russia first spaceflight .