Comments on: France and U.S. militaries complete rendezvous maneuvers in orbit

By: Edward

Edward — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 19:20:45 +0000

Mark Sizer asked: “Can one even see a satellite 10km away with the naked eye?”

Depending upon lighting conditions, but it may look more like a star. We can see satellites pass overhead from the ground, although this is usually just after sunset or just before sunrise (after or before twilight’s brightened sky). A tumbling satellite may get brighter and darker as it passes. Satellites tend to cross the sky at about the same rate as an airplane, and given the differences in distance and speed, that makes some sense. Satellites don’t have the flashing red lights, though.

By: Mark Sizer

Mark Sizer — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 16:16:18 +0000

I don’t think “rendezvous” is the right word for getting within 10s of km of something. Can one even see a satellite 10km away with the naked eye? I doubt it.

Is there a word for “within weapon’s range”? And why would it need to be French? There must be a German word for that – or one that is easily created.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:07:17 +0000

One has to wonder whether the multi-kilometer distances of closest approach were due to “an abundance of caution,” as the saying goes, or to an actual inability to be certain, in real-time, of either or both the satellite locations or the vector of closure of the two objects to a degree of precision that would allow closer approaches with safety. Given that all of these numbers can be observed by suitably-equipped parties on the ground – including, one presumes, Russia and the PRC – perhaps the generous margins were simply an attempt at keeping the “best efforts” numbers of which these sats are capable a secret.

In either case, these are much larger and vastly more expensive birds than the Impulse tugs involved in the Impulse-Starfish test. Which suggests, at a minimum, that Impulse and Starfish have a good cost-based sales pitch to make to USSF and allied militaries anent proliferated deployment of many future birds capable of such maneuvers.