WASHINGTON — A Chinese satellite was caught red-handed when it snuck away from its position in Earth orbit to do something very unsettling. Here are the details:

Deutsche Welle reports that a satellite tracking company spotted a Chinese satellite sneaking around in Earth orbit.

ExoAnalytic Solutions is a private U.S. company that tracks the position of satellites using a large global network of optical telescopes.

The company recently provided evidence that China’s SJ-21 satellite disappeared from its regular position on January 22.

This happened during daylight hours, when observations were difficult to make with optical telescopes.

SJ-21 was later spotted executing a “large maneuver” to bring it closely alongside another Chinese satellite, a dead BeiDou Navigation System satellite.

SJ-21 then grabbed the dead satellite. Over the course of the next few days, the two spacecraft moved together westward.

On January 26, they separated and the dead satellite was pushed into a graveyard orbit.

Although such satellites can be used for good, the evidence is not welcome news for Pentagon policy makers, as this means China has the capability to use similar satellites to grab American satellites and destroy them by pushing them into Earth’s atmosphere.

A graveyard orbit is an orbit that lies far away from common operational orbits. Objects in such orbits are highly unlikely to collide with other man-made objects.

After pushing the dead satellite into a graveyard orbit, SJ-21 has returned to its original position — a geostationary orbit just above the Congo Basin in Africa.

SOURCES: Deutsche Welle, The Drive, Fox News, Interesting Engineering
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