Kosmos-2612 beside ICEYE-X36

A satellite of Aerospace Defence Forces moved up beside a satellite of ICEYE US, under 1 km away at the nearest, and left after 2 days 14 h.

Reported: 5 public reports other than Orbinauts name these two.

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

Nearest
under 1 km
Oct 18 · 4:27 AM 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
Last move
Kosmos-2612
Oct 18 · 11:34 PM UTC

The one that moved

Kosmos-2612name not yet certain

Aerospace Defence Forces, RU

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

The one it came up to

ICEYE-X36

ICEYE US, United States

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

Whether Aerospace Defence Forces or ICEYE US has said what this rendezvous was is not recorded yet. What others said is below; this page draws no conclusion.

See both on the map
1 km10 km100 kmICEYE-X36Kosmos-2612under 1 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

    Move raised

    A set showed Kosmos-2612 had moved, by 1.3 m/s.

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

  5. 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°

  6. published 11:06 PM UTC

    Nearest raised

    The least distance read on the pair fell to this.

    0.73 km · 10.9 km a day later · Δa −0.09 km · θ 0.004°

  7. published Oct 19, 2:22 AM UTC

    Move raised

    A set showed Kosmos-2612 had moved, by 1.3 m/s.

    173.46 km · 527.6 km a day later · Δa +2.50 km · θ 0.001°

  8. 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°

  9. 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°

  10. published 11:07 AM UTC

    Move raised

    A set showed one of the two had moved.

    478.19 km · 476.7 km a day later · Δa −0.02 km · θ 0.002°

What the sources state

These days and distances are the sources’ own, to the precision they state; the stages above are the detector’s, read from public element sets.

When
Sep 30, 2026 to Oct 19, 2026
Same planeSep 30, 2026 to Oct 14, 2026
Over two weeks beginning on September 30, 2026, Cosmos 2612 executed a series of new maneuvers that brought it back into the same plane
Same heightSep 30, 2026 to Oct 14, 2026
and to nearly the same altitude
BesideOct 16, 2026
roughly three miles (about 5 km) apart on Friday afternoon, 16 October, after more than 200 miles (320 km) a day earlier
Closest statedOct 18, 2026
within roughly 500 meters
LeftOct 18, 2026 to Oct 19, 2026
began moving away on October 18 and 19

The moves

Each move is a change the detector read between two of an object’s element sets, beyond what drag and the Earth’s shape do: the speed change it implies, the change of height and the change of the orbit’s plane.

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: Did SpaceX really help Russia's Cosmos 2612 close on ICEYE-X36?

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°
Moveraised2026-10-16 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°
Nearestraised2026-10-16 20:36:262026-10-16 23:06:420.73 km10.94 km−0.09 km0.0041°
Moveraised2026-10-18 23:34:472026-10-19 02:22:42173.46 km527.58 km+2.50 km0.0014°
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°
Moveraised2026-10-20 07:26:412026-10-20 11:07:25478.19 km476.74 km−0.02 km0.0017°

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 of this rendezvous’s verdicts would keep it off the list; the pair’s other rendezvous are judged on their own.

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