It’s hunting season in orbit as Russia’s killer satellites mystify skywatchers

News Snapshot:

Russia is a waning space power, but President Vladimir Putin has made sure he still has a saber to rattle in orbit. This has become more evident in recent weeks, when we saw a pair of rocket launches carrying top-secret military payloads, the release of a mysterious object from a Russian mothership in orbit, and a sequence of complex formation-flying maneuvers with a trio of satellites nearly 400 miles up. In isolation, each of these things would catch the attention of Western analysts. Taken together, the frenzy of maneuvers represents one of the most significant surges in Russian military space...