Luch beside INTELSAT 901

A satellite of Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii came up beside a satellite of INTELSAT, 10 km away at the nearest its sources state.

Reported: 2 public reports other than Orbinauts name these two.

From the public record

From
Jun 22, 2015
to Sep 25, 2015
Closest stated
10 km
Orbit
GEO
geostationary orbit, over 18.1° W

The one that moved

Luch

Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii, RU

40258 · 2014-058A · launched Sep 27, 2014

The one it came up to

INTELSAT 901

INTELSAT, I-INT

26824 · 2001-024A · launched Jun 9, 2001

What the sources state

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

When
Jun 22, 2015 to Sep 25, 2015
BesideJun 22, 2015
holding 17.9 W, 22 Jun to 25 Sep 2015
Closest stated
At times, the Russian satellite maneuvered to about 10 kilometers of the Intelsat space vehicles
LeftSep 25, 2015
holding 17.9 W, 22 Jun to 25 Sep 2015

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
Oct 9, 2015newsMike Gruss, "Russian Satellite Maneuvers, Silence Worry Intelsat", SpaceNews, 9 October 2015
Sep 1, 2022InstituteThomas G. Roberts, "Unusual Behavior in GEO: Luch (Olymp-K)", CSIS Aerospace Security Project data repository, last updated 1 September 2022