European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent.
Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them.
Russian space vehicles have shadowed European satellites more intensively over the past three years, at a time of high tension between the Kremlin and the West following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
For several years, military and civilian space authorities in the West have been tracking the activities of Luch-1 and Luch-2—two Russian objects that have carried out repeated suspicious maneuvers in orbit.
Both vehicles have made risky close approaches to some of Europe’s most important geostationary satellites, which operate high above the Earth and service the continent, including the UK, as well as large parts of Africa and the Middle East.
According to orbital data and ground-based telescopic observations, they have lingered nearby for weeks at a time, particularly over the past three years. Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached 17 European satellites.
Both satellites are suspected of “doing sigint [signals intelligence] business,” Major General Michael Traut, head of the German military’s space command, told the Financial Times, referring to the satellites’ practice of staying close to Western communications satellites.
A senior European intelligence official said the Luch vehicles were almost certainly intended to position themselves within the narrow cone of data beams transmitted from Earth-based stations to the satellites.
The official expressed concern that sensitive information—notably command data for European satellites—is unencrypted, because many were launched years ago without advanced onboard computers or encryption capabilities.