A satellite would have replaced 36,000 km to the US pasmo

In October 2021, China launched the Shijian-21. It was a Multipurpose satellite that destined to test technologies of Space waste mitigation In geostationary orbit. In a nutshell: a space garbage. In January of this year, another of these mysterious Shijian was launched, the SJ-25. Your purpose? Extend the useful life of other satellites. Now both have been found in the geostationary orbit and has unleashed madness.

Of the United States, of course.

Chinese wall-e. The SJ-21 was launched in Secret relative. China is one of the nations that More interest has lately in taking over boxes in space, and his first mission was to be coupled to the satellite -also Chinese – Beidou-2 G2 that it was already out of service and towed it successfully outside the active geostation orbit (geo).

The SJ-21 dragged Beidou to the space cemetery, but from the Pentagon they saw this as a direct threat.

Cold Space War. We have been immersed in a New Cold War. Not as the lived a few decades -although at times nuclear fear is also on the table -, but we are witnessing the rapid technological development of several nations with something in mind: space. American military authorities already speak openly about Dangers represented by a space China For Western interests, and the SJ-21 movement was seen as something dangerous.

And lor saw like a threat due both to the precision that the satellite showed and because they claim that It has robotic arms (There are no images and China has not confirmed it) that they could put satellites from other nations in check. Apart from the “physical” attack between satellites, they went further, noting that the SJ-21 could have technologies capable of blocking transmissions and blinding the sensors of other space vehicles. In fact, the US has a Wrestling Manual between Satellites that we met a few months ago.

The “space gas station”. To revive the controversy, we have the aforementioned Shijian-25. This SJ-25 is a satellite designed to verify fuel refueling technologies and extend the useful life of satellites in Geo. In a nutshell: it is a kind of space gas station. It has the ability to perform very precise approaches to other bodies, such as the SJ-21, but also coupling work with which it can fill in that fuel.

The logic of this operation is simple: to provide a longer life to the satellites that work and are already in orbit instead of launching new equivalent satellites and generating more Space garbage. Money is also saved because it is cheaper “throwing gas” than putting one of these satellites into orbit.

Contact. And the results have not taken to arrive. As we see in Ars Technica, a few days ago it was observed not only that both satellites were operating to extremely short distances The one of the other, but reached a point, already more than 36,000 kilometers of us, joined.

Can be seen in This Timelapse in which the two satellites merge into a bright ball to subsequently separate. But of course, this is not confirmed and who is raising the voice is the United States.

Americans are attentive. USA, when he realized that the two satellites were approaching, two positioned GSSAP Vigías Satellites near the SJ-21 and the SJ-25 to observe more closely. Because the United States plans to carry out the first refueling of a military satellite in orbit in some moment next year they call “dynamic spatial operations”, But it is confirmed that the SH-21 and the SJ-25 have joined, China would have advanced them on the right.

John Shaw is a retired general lieutenant from United States Space Force And, as we read in Ars Technica, a firm defender of these dynamic space operations. He states that “they were an operational need a few years ago, but now it is something much more important, especially given the activities of potential adversaries.”

Focus change. In the same article, Shaw comments that GSSAP satellites have operated on other occasions to approach Chinese satellites that “simply move away quickly.” When we talk about a new cold war, we do it by statements such as those of this military: “We tend to operate the GSSAP as airships, using slow and minimal energy approaches. The Chinese know it, so they find it relatively easy to maneuver to avoid such approaches.”

Caution. And Shaw sees this alleged refueling in Geo by Chinese satellites as a threat: “If tomorrow they can reproduce freely and operate even more dynamically, then the cost of maneuvers will be marginal for them and the challenge for the GSSAP will be even greater.” What is clear is that there is a world of possibilities here. The SJ-21 and SJ-25 may have been successfully coupled, but it may also not.

Similarly, it is possible that it was only a maneuver to distract the GSSAP. There are those who point out that the SJ-21 had run out of energy after several operations, so it will be interesting to see if, after that approach, it begins to move more freedom, indicating the alleged replacement.

But well, at the end of the day, China is not the only objective. US authorities have been warning that Russia has ways to manipulate enemy satellitesand now they have another concern if the refueling between Chinese satellites is confirmed.

Images | United States Space ForceS2A-Systems