俄军发射的神秘太空物体引发担忧

It is a tale that could have come straight from the Cold war. A mysterious object launched by the Russian military is being closely tracked by western space agencies, stoking fears over the revival of a long-defunct Kremlin project to destroy satellites.

这个故事完全可能发生在冷战(Cold War)时期。俄罗斯军方发射的一个神秘物体正受到西方太空机构的密切追踪，各方担忧俄罗斯重启搁置多年的卫星摧毁计划。

For the past few weeks, amateur astronomers and satellite-trackers in Russia and the West have followed the unusual manoeuvres of “Object 2014-28E” in the skies, watching it guide itself towards other Russian space objects in a pattern that appeared to culminate last weekend in a rendezvous with the remains of the rocket stage that launched it.

过去几周，俄罗斯和西方的天文爱好者和卫星追踪者都在跟踪太空中“2014-28E号物体”的一系列不寻常的动作，目睹该物体引导自身飞向俄罗斯其他空间物体，最终似乎在上周末与发射它的火箭末级残骸会合。

The object had originally been classed as space debris, propelled into orbit as part of a Russian rocket launch in May to add three Rodnik communications satellites to an existing military constellation. The US military is now tracking it under the Norad designation 39765.

该物体原本被界定为空间碎片，是5月一枚俄罗斯火箭将3颗“泉水”(Rodnik)低轨通信卫星送入一个现有的军用卫星星座时入轨的。美国军方目前在追踪它，其北美防空司令部(Norad)代号是39765号。

Its purpose is unknown, and could be civilian: a project to hoover up space junk, for example. Or a vehicle to repair or refuel existing satellites. But interest has been piqued by the fact that Russia did not declare its launch – and by the object’s peculiar, and very active, precision movements across the skies.

目前还不知道该物体的目的是什么，不能排除民用目的：比如一个吸入太空垃圾的项目。或是对现有的卫星进行维修或充能。但俄罗斯并没有宣布发射该物体，而该物体在太空中的飞行轨迹又如此怪异、活跃而精准，这些都激起了人们的兴趣。

Russia officially mothballed its anti-satellite weaponry programme – Istrebitel Sputnikov or satellite killer – after the fall of the iron curtain, though its expertise in the field has never entirely disappeared. Indeed, Russian military officials have publicly stated in the past that they would restart research into the programme in the event of a deterioration in relations with the US over anti-missile defence treaties. In 2010, Oleg Ostapenko, the commander of Russia’s space forces, and now head of Russia’s space agency, said Russia was again developing “inspection” and “strike” satellites.

“铁幕”（冷战时期将欧洲分为两个阵营的界线——译者注）落下后，俄罗斯在官方场合搁置了反卫星武器计划，即“卫星杀手”计划(Istrebitel Sputnikov)，尽管俄方在该领域的技术诀窍从未完全消失。的确，俄罗斯军方官员曾公开声明，如果俄美在反导防御条约问题上关系恶化，他们将重启该计划的研究。2010年，时任俄罗斯太空部队司令、现任俄罗斯航天署署长奥列格•奥斯塔片科(Oleg Ostapenko)曾说，俄罗斯已恢复研发“监测”和“攻击”卫星。

Russia’s ministry of defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

俄罗斯国防部没有立即回应记者的置评请求。