China’s SJ-21 ‘tugs’ dead satellite out of GEO belt: Trackers

"I think there are more questions than answers right now when it comes to SJ-21," Todd Harrison, director of CSIS's Aerospace Project, told Breaking Defense.

By   THERESA HITCHENS

on January 26, 2022 at 3:26 PM

A virtual dashboard created in partnership by CSIS, the Secure World Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin allows users to track real-time and predicted movements of satellites and space junk. (Screengrab satellitedashboard.org)

WASHINGTON: China’s SJ-21 satellite now “appears to be functioning as a space tug,” pulling a dead CompassG2, or Beidou, navigation satellite out of the way of other satellites operating in the heavily populated Geosynchronous Orbit, according to a new analysis by commercial space monitoring firm ExoAnalytic Solutions.

The observations were reported today by Brien Flewelling, who serves as the firm’s chief architect for space situational awareness (SSA), during a webinar hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

According to Flewelling’s video presentation, the SJ-21 on Jan. 22 went “missing” from its orbital slot for a few hours, after performing what are known as “close proximity operations,” moving closer and closer around the Compass G2. The “gap” in observations was caused by the fact that when it then docked with the defunct satellite, it was daytime — when telescopes cannot image. ExoAnalytics tracked it down after it had subsequently performed “a large maneuver” pulling the dead satellite out of GEO.