Latest week

The week in orbit · 26 October – 1 November 2026 (UTC)

26 Oct – 1 Nov: Two US military satellites are matching speeds about 2.3 km apart, FLEX (ESA) is holding station about 58 km from SENTINEL-3A (EU) and COSMOS 2612 (Russia) is holding station about 504 km from ICEYE-X36 (USA).

Top stories

  1. Possible rendezvous
    USAJACKAL-004 and VICTUS HAZE PUMA are matching speeds: predicted passing speed down from 10.7 m/s on 23 Oct to 3.4 m/s, passes about 2.3 km apart

    Matching speeds takes deliberate burns: this is what a rendezvous looks like from outside. JACKAL-004 changed orbit in the days before.

  2. Shadowing another country's satellite
    EUFLEX is holding 58 to 60 km from SENTINEL-3A in the same orbit

    Holding a steady distance in another satellite's orbit takes deliberate station-keeping. Same orbit plane and height, at a steady distance, since 28 Oct or before.

  3. Shadowing another country's satellite
    RussiaUSACOSMOS 2612 is holding 495 to 505 km from ICEYE-X36 in the same orbit

    Holding a steady distance in another satellite's orbit takes deliberate station-keeping. Same orbit plane and height, at a steady distance, since 27 Oct or before.

  4. Possible breakup
    USA4 new pieces catalogued from USA 32 (launched 1988)

    New pieces from an old launch can mean something broke up, or old debris catalogued late. A burst of new pieces from an old launch usually means something broke up recently, or that older debris was only now catalogued..

  5. Busier than usual
    JapanJapan: 5 military orbit changes in the last 7 days, against a usual 0.3 a week

    Well outside that country's own normal: at least twice its usual week, beyond chance.

Military satellites moved3553 orbit changes
Pairs closing563 closed in all week
Launches3none military
Geostationary moves21 re-entry · 67 new objects

Military satellites that changed orbit

35

Confirmed by the next public orbit update, so a change late in the week can arrive up to a day after it.

  • USAUSA
    24 changes · 12 satellites
  • ChinaChina
    10 changes · 10 satellites
  • RussiaRussia
    8 changes · 5 satellites
  • GermanyGermany
    4 changes · 2 satellites
  • FranceFrance
    2 changes · 1 satellite
  • EgyptEgypt
    1 change · 1 satellite
  • BrazilBrazil
    1 change · 1 satellite
  • SpainSpain
    1 change · 1 satellite
  • JapanJapan
    1 change · 1 satellite
  • USSRUSSR
    1 change · 1 satellite

Biggest move

USANTS-3military
orbit lowered by 220 km, tilt changed by 0.01°, 27 Oct, 18:42 UTC

Closed in all week

3

Pairs found closing on 4 or more days, never more than 5% further apart than the day before and at least 10% nearer at the end, with the distance at each day's check. Usually routine: satellites in the same orbit drift past each other.

Possible rendezvous

1

Pairs whose predicted close passes slowed day after day until they nearly matched speeds, which is what a rendezvous looks like from outside.

Shadowing another country's satellite

2

Satellites in the same orbit plane and height as another country's satellite, holding a steady distance from it rather than drifting past.

Geostationary moves

2

Launches

3

Re-entries

1
  • STARLINK-1283 re-entry predicted
    1 Nov, 18:29 UTC · Space-Track prediction · US; uncertain by hours

Built 2 Nov, 22:00 UTC from the event log: what overhead24 detected that week, counted by fixed rules. Sources: Space-Track.org (USSPACECOM) (orbit data and re-entries); GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat) (owners and military class, CC BY 4.0); Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs) (launches); UCDP (where fighting was recorded, CC BY 4.0). Worked out from public orbit data, accurate to within a few kilometres, and less accurate the older the data is. Not for collision avoidance, navigation or targeting. Satellites pass over every country: being overhead says nothing about what a satellite is doing. Each day in full: the daily brief.

Earlier weeks

19–25 October 2026