Kosmos-2542 beside USA 245

An object of Topographics Service of the Russian Armed Froces came up beside an object of National Reconnaissance Office, 150 km away at the nearest its sources state.

Reported: 7 public reports other than Orbinauts name these two.

From the public record

From
Jan 20, 2020
to Apr 25, 2020
Closest stated
150 km
Jan 29, 2020
Orbit
LEO
low Earth orbit

The one that moved

Kosmos-2542

Topographics Service of the Russian Armed Froces, RU

44797 · 2019-079 · launched Nov 25, 2019

The one it came up to

USA 245

National Reconnaissance Office, United States

39232 · 2013-043 · launched Aug 28, 2013

What the sources state

Every day and distance here is the sources’ own, to the precision they state.

When
Jan 20, 2020 to Apr 25, 2020
Same planeJan 21, 2020 to Jan 24, 2020
planes about 0.55 degrees apart
BesideJan 20, 2020
the manoeuvre to shadow began around 20 January 2020
Closest statedJan 29, 2020
at a distance between 150 and 500km away
LeftApr 25, 2020
perigee lowered, decay began (2020 Apr 25)

The detector was not yet running: it reads low Earth orbit since April 2026 and the geostationary belt since October 2026.

Reported elsewhere

Who else said these two were together, earliest first.

Said onWhoWhat
Jan 29, 2020AnalystMichael Thompson, Seesat-L, 29 January 2020, with Nico Janssen's elements in the same thread
Feb 2, 2020AnalystMichael Thompson, Seesat-L, 2 February 2020
Feb 3, 2020newsNeel Patel, "A Russian satellite seems to be tailing a US spy satellite in Earth's orbit", MIT Technology Review, 3 February 2020
Feb 10, 2020governmentGen. John Raymond, U.S. Space Force, statement to Time, 10 February 2020, as quoted by The War Zone, 23 July 2020
Feb 19, 2020AnalystNico Janssen, Seesat-L, 19 February 2020
Apr 28, 2025AnalystBart Hendrickx, "Project Nivelir: Russia's inspection satellites (part 1)", The Space Review, 28 April 2025
Apr 28, 2025AnalystJonathan McDowell, "Nivelir" timeline, planet4589.org