Anomalies associated with artificial satellites in Earth's orbit are occurring more and more often, which gave conspiracy theorists a reason to say that a war is imminent in outer space.
At the end of March 2019, India announced that it had deliberately shot down its own satellite with a rocket. This was arranged in order to demonstrate their military power and capabilities.
The Microsat-R satellite was launched by India in January 2019 and was at an altitude of 270 km at the time of the explosion.
Shortly thereafter, US Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson issued a statement that the United States would soon show everyone its power to deter Russia and China, which allegedly targeted US military satellites.
Wilson said this in her speech at the 35th Annual Space Symposium on April 8, 2019. At the same conference, US Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein threatened that states could "retaliate" if someone dared to attack US space military systems.
These strange hints seemed to many to be an indirect answer to what happened next with the Intelsat 29e communications satellite. A few days ago, the international network ISON discovered 13 fragments in orbit that used to be this satellite.
And on April 15, the day before the incident, it was reported that the Intelsat 29e satellite behaves very unusual and moves in a spiral trajectory. A week earlier it was said that the satellite had a damaged propulsion system and a fuel leak.
However, from what exactly this satellite collapsed later was not reported. From the versions, collisions with a small meteorite or with space debris were expressed.
Promotional video:
Intelsat 29e satellite and its wreckage.
A little later, Russian astronomers from the Irkutsk Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics noticed an anomalous satellite in orbit, which, as Sputnik News reported, was unusually maneuvering between other satellites.
The message about this object was published in a report on the eve of the Moscow conference on the problem of space debris. The object was spotted by the Sayan Solar Observatory using the AZT-33IK optical telescope, and it was promised to tell more about it at the conference itself.
There are reports that Russia, China, and the United States have been actively developing experimental and mostly secret micro-satellites in recent years, which are believed to have the ability to capture and / or control enemy satellites, as well as intercept their messages.
It is not yet known who can control this particular satellite.