Kosmos-2612 beside ICEYE-X36

A satellite of VVKOV moved up beside a satellite of ICEUS, 2.5 km away at the nearest, and left after 2 days 14 h.

Left · the one that moved opened the distance on October 19, 2026

Nearest
2.5 km
Oct 16 · 3:49 PM UTC
Beside for
2 days 14 h
Oct 16, 2:14 PM to Oct 19, 4:21 AM UTC
Took to come beside
9 days
same plane Oct 7, same height Oct 12
Orbit
LEO
low Earth orbit

The one that moved

Kosmos-2612name not yet certain

VVKOV, RU

68762 · 2026-083H · launched Apr 16, 2026

The one it came up to

ICEYE-X36

ICEUS, United States

59103 · 2024-043F · launched Mar 4, 2024

Whether VVKOV or ICEUS has said what this rendezvous was is not recorded yet. What others said is below; this page draws no conclusion.

See both on the mapJSON
1 km10 km100 kmICEYE-X36Kosmos-26122.5 km

The stages

Each step is one of Space-Track’s element sets, run through SGP4 and set against the other’s. A stage is raised by one set and confirmed when a later one agrees.

  1. published 5:41 PM UTC

    Same plane seen

    Kosmos-2612’s orbit was found in ICEYE-X36’s plane, 0.093° off, and 47.5 km higher.

    Δa +47.53 km · θ 0.093°

  2. published Oct 13, 3:55 AM UTC

    Same height seen

    Kosmos-2612’s orbit had come to within 0.21 km of ICEYE-X36’s height.

    484.33 km · Δa −0.21 km · θ 0.002°

  3. published 6:00 PM UTC

    Beside raised

    A set placed Kosmos-2612 beside ICEYE-X36. One set raises it; a later one must agree.

    3.39 km · 7.9 km a day later · Δa −0.10 km · θ 0.003°

  4. published 6:00 PM UTC

    Beside confirmed

    A later set agreed: Kosmos-2612 stayed beside ICEYE-X36.

    2.49 km · 8.9 km a day later · Δa −0.09 km · θ 0.004°

  5. published 7:06 AM UTC

    Left raised

    A set saw Kosmos-2612 moving away from ICEYE-X36. One set raises it; a later one must agree.

    243.97 km · 598.0 km a day later · Δa +2.50 km · θ 0.001°

  6. published 10:07 AM UTC

    Left confirmed

    A later set agreed: Kosmos-2612 had left ICEYE-X36.

    291.09 km · 645.4 km a day later · Δa +2.51 km · θ 0.001°

Reported elsewhere

Who else said these two were together, earliest first.

Said onWhoWhat
Oct 15, 2026InstituteClayton Swope and Chantal Li, "Could Russia Be Poised to Use an On-Orbit Weapon Against a Commercial Satellite?", CSIS, 15 October 2026
Oct 17, 2026AnalystMarco Langbroek, "KOSMOS 2612 and ICEYE-X36: a worrisome cat-and-mouse-game in Space", SatTrackCam Leiden, 17 October 2026, updated to 21 October
Oct 17, 2026AnalystJonathan McDowell on X, 17 October 2026
Oct 17, 2026TrackerLeoLabs, statement to Axios, "Russia nears U.S. satellite, raising alarm about intent", 17 October 2026
Oct 19, 2026TrackerLeoLabs event report, as reported by Rachel Jewett, "Russian Satellite Maneuvered Within Extreme Proximity of ICEYE Satellite, LeoLabs Reports", Via Satellite, 19 October 2026

Our Article about it: The Russian satellite that flew 5 km behind an ICEYE radar satellite has manoeuvred away from it

Every verdict as numbers
StageStateSet epoch (UTC)Published (UTC)DistanceA day laterΔaθExclusion
Same planeseen2026-10-07 14:07:432026-10-07 17:41:50+47.53 km0.0925°
Same heightseen2026-10-12 22:39:152026-10-13 03:55:05484.33 km−0.21 km0.0022°
Besideraised2026-10-16 14:14:112026-10-16 18:00:493.39 km7.93 km−0.10 km0.0032°
Besideconfirmed2026-10-16 15:49:442026-10-16 18:00:492.49 km8.88 km−0.09 km0.0038°
Leftraised2026-10-19 04:21:052026-10-19 07:06:45243.97 km598.03 km+2.50 km0.0013°
Leftconfirmed2026-10-19 07:32:132026-10-19 10:07:17291.09 km645.37 km+2.51 km0.0011°

Δa is the semi-major axis of the one that moved less the other’s; θ is the angle between the two orbits’ planes. A day later is where the set puts the two 24 hours on, with no further manoeuvre. An exclusion tag on any verdict would keep the pair off the list.

The project’s ground-truth case: 68762-59103:2026-09-30.