Slingshot Aerospace has observed Luch satellites maneuvering and stationing near geostationary satellites for many months at a time.

Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached at least 17 other geostationary satellites.

The continued operations of Luch-series and Cosmos satellites increase the need for greater investment in space resilience, continuous Space Domain Awareness, and urgent review of civil and governmental satellite security protocols.

The geostationary satellites targeted by Luch vehicles provide communications, television, and data services to the European Union, the United Kingdom, Africa, and the Middle East.

Aldoria analyst Norbert Pouzin has identified a pattern in which Luch satellites have visited the same families of satellites operated by NATO-affiliated operators.

Luch-1 and Luch-2 have executed close-approach maneuvers to major European and NATO geostationary satellites at approximately 36,000 kilometers altitude.

Luch-1 is also known by the Russian designation Olymp-K-1.

The activities of Luch-series satellites represent an expansion of Russian hybrid warfare methods into the space domain.

Two Russian spacecraft identified as Luch-1 and Luch-2 have been intercepting communications of about a dozen key European satellites.

Many older European satellites do not encrypt their command links, leaving those channels vulnerable to interception.

Operations by Luch-1 and Luch-2 have intensified over the last three years.

Luch-2 was launched on a Proton-M rocket.

Intercepted unencrypted command-link data could enable an adversary to spoof ground operators and send false commands to satellites to manipulate thrusters, alter services, displace satellites to unusable orbits, or induce uncontrolled reentry.

Even without decrypting content, observers can map satellite usage and locate ground terminals based on proximity and observation data.

Luch-2 is also known by the Russian designation Olymp-K-2.

Russia launched two maneuver-capable satellites, Cosmos 2589 and Cosmos 2590, in the year prior to the report.

Slingshot Aerospace and the French company Aldoria have monitored Luch satellite activities that operate for the Russian Ministry of Defense and the FSB.

Cosmos 2589 is en route to the geostationary belt.

The crew access arm will not be retracted during the next rehearsal after engineers demonstrated the ground launch sequencer can retract it during the final phase of the countdown.

The replaced seals are part of the tail service mast umbilical on the mobile launcher.

The removed seals are being analyzed by engineers.

Engineers detached rocket and ground-side interface plates to inspect the area of elevated gas levels and replace seals around two fueling lines.

Testing will continue at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to evaluate additional dynamics of the plates.

The tail service masts tilt back before launch and include quick-disconnect mechanisms that instantaneously disconnect at liftoff to ensure retraction.

The Artemis II astronauts are continuing their training activities.

NASA added 30 minutes of extra time during each of two planned holds in the countdown before and after tanking operations, increasing the total countdown time by one hour.

The added countdown time will not affect the crew’s timeline on launch day.

Technicians replaced two seals around two fueling lines after NASA detected higher-than-allowable hydrogen gas concentrations during the wet dress rehearsal.

The Orion crew module hatch will be closed prior to the next wet dress rehearsal.

With the seals replaced, NASA expects to have the interfaces reconnected sometime today.

The closeout crew responsible on launch day for assisting the Artemis II crew into their seats and closing Orion’s two hatches will not be deployed to the launch pad for the next rehearsal.

Two tail service masts, each about three stories tall, provide cryogenic propellant lines and electrical cable connections to the SLS core stage.

NASA is still hoping to launch Artemis II in the March launch window but will not set a target launch date until it is satisfied with repairs to seals on two fuel lines.

The BANKHEAD system in Turkey, later renamed HIPPODROME, was tasked with cueing the STONEHOUSE facility about Soviet planetary launches.

The original STONEHOUSE plan included a 26-meter antenna and later added a 46-meter antenna for redundancy.

By early 1982 Yevpatoriya’s central facility contained the 70-meter RT-70 antenna, a large antenna control building, and ten support buildings.

Each steerable antenna array at Yevpatoriya’s north station consisted of eight 16-meter solid circular parabolic reflectors arranged in two rows of four reflectors each.

By early 1982 Yevpatoriya’s north facility contained 24 different antennas including two 12-meter ORBITA antennas, two 25-meter antennas, the two eight-dish arrays, and several telemetry antennas.

Soviet construction of the major satellite tracking station near Yevpatoriya began in 1960 and main construction was apparently finished by 1961.

The eight-dish array antennas at Yevpatoriya were designated ADU-1000 by the Russians and formed the Pluton deep space tracking network.

Russia reactivated at least part of the Yevpatoriya satellite tracking and communications facility after illegally occupying Crimea in 2014.

In August 2025 the Ukrainian military released a video showing drones attacking domes at the 3762/4 observatory at the Yevpatoriya facility in Russian-occupied Crimea.

NPIC produced a November 1963 report titled 'Deep-Space Probe Tracking and Communication Center, Yevpatoriya, USSR' describing north and south tracking stations and a microwave communications station.

The STONEHOUSE facility in Ethiopia closed in 1974 due to civil war and NSA operations were apparently moved to a British facility in Cyprus.

The Yevpatoriya center included a microwave station with a control building and a lattice tower approximately 240 feet (73 meters) high supporting two microwave dishes.

The U.S. intelligence community continues to monitor the Yevpatoriya facility.

Simferopol, 28 nautical miles (52 kilometers) southeast of Yevpatoriya south, contained a large parabolic antenna about 26 meters in diameter identified by U.S. imagery in September 1963.

By June 1969 NPIC described the Simferopol Space Flight Center as apparently the most significant tracking facility in the Soviet Union with the largest number of antennas and personnel.

Sir Bernard Lovell of the United Kingdom’s Jodrell Bank Observatory visited the Yevpatoriya facility in 1963 and documented the visit in New Scientist.

The observatory at Yevpatoriya’s north facility is designated 3762/4 within the Russian Pritsel system.