A Russian satellite once used to inspect other spacecraft appears to have disintegrated in a graveyard orbit high above the Earth, according to ground-based imagery.<\/p>\n
The Luch\/Olymp satellite, launched in 2014, is one of two secretive military Russian satellites that have been used to stalk spacecraft from the US<\/a> and others in the geostationary belt (GEO), around 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the equator. Luch\/Olymp (NORAD catalog number 40258) had recently been decommissioned and sent into a graveyard orbit a few hundred miles above GEO in October 2025.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, however, optical ground-based imagery<\/a> from Swiss space situational awareness company s2A systems shows what appears to be a fragmentation event as the satellite disintegrates and begins to tumble. Additional objects have been spotted around the satellite following the fragmentation event at 06:09 GMT on Jan. 30, according to a post on social media platform X.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n A short time lapse of the fragmentation event on LUCH (OLYMP) #40258 that took place today, 2026-01-30 from 06:09:03.486 UTC. pic.twitter.com\/0bwbNvlnCLJanuary 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell told Space.com that the fragmentation of Luch\/Olymp may have been caused by an external debris impact, which may be a worrying event.<\/p>\n McDowell says the disintegration may possibly be due to a debris hit, since internal energy sources, such as fuel and batteries, should have been vented when it was retired.<\/p>\n While a failure to properly passivate the spacecraft could not be ruled out, McDowell notes that a possible debris impact could suggest that the space debris environment in GEO, and the graveyard orbit above it, is worse than previously believed.<\/p>\n While the first Luch\/Olymp satellite is now out of action, Russia has another such asset, having launched a second Luch\/Olymp inspector satellite in 2023. Russia, the U.S.<\/a> and China<\/a> have in recent years used satellites around geostationary orbit to get close to and inspect other countries\u2019 satellites.<\/p>\n