Is Russia threatening SpaceX’s Starlink? German space chief raises concerns

The German space chief has raised concerns over Russia’s increasing military satellite activities and its potential impacts on commercial constellations including Elon Musk’s Starlink.

In May, Russia maneuvered four military satellites, Cosmos 2610–2613, close to an ICEYE commercial radar-imaging satellite that provides battlefield intelligence to Ukraine and its allies.

According to Reuters, Major General Michael Traut, head of German space command, warned that these "chasing" tactics and grey-zone maneuvers could threaten massive commercial networks like Elon Musk's Starlink by forcing fuel-draining avoidance moves that shorten satellite lifespans and disrupt services.

"Russia is demonstrating ways, ​which, if employed directly towards a mega constellation like Starlink, could have an impact on their lifetime and on ⁠the quality of service for all users, not just Ukraine,” General Traut added.

According to him, such satellite capabilities could be disrupted even without a ​direct attack, adding that “concerns me quite a lot.”

In recent months, the fears of hybrid threats and grey-zone tactics have grown as the Western military officials noted that Russian blatant interference in the form of on-orbit trailing and ground-based jamming has spiked since 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine.

On the contrary, Moscow has warned of targeting the commercial Western satellites if they find it helping Ukraine. But the Kremlin denied waging hybrid operations against NATO countries.

For space experts, the manoeuvring of Cosmos satellites into close proximity with commercial satellites raises security concerns for Starlink and the broader space industry. Russia has not publicly disclosed the capabilities of these satellites and why is he deploying the Cosmos.

In the wake of growing threats in the space arena, Germany embarks on the journey of developing its own inspector satellites while considering non-destructive orbital defence capabilities, and partnering with companies like ICEYE to build dozens of new surveillance satellites for NATO's eastern flank.