The deliberate approach of one satellite toward another, for inspection, servicing or surveillance, which creates both a collision risk and an ambiguity over the maneuver's intent.
A rendezvous and proximity operation (RPO) is the deliberate approach of one satellite toward another object in orbit, for legitimate purposes such as inspection, servicing or refueling, or for surveillance and intelligence purposes. This type of maneuver raises a twofold insurance and strategic problem: physical proximity mechanically raises collision risk, and the absence of any international notification standard leaves ambiguity over the approaching operator's true intent, an ambiguity major space powers sometimes exploit deliberately. Between November 2019 and January 2020, the US military watched with concern as Russian satellites Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543 repeatedly approached the American spy satellite USA 245 to within a few hundred kilometers, behavior US Space Command described as a potentially hostile maneuver, while Russia maintained it was conducting a routine technical inspection of its own satellites. For an insurer, this kind of episode illustrates an emerging risk: a commercial or government satellite can find itself exposed to a proximity maneuver conducted by a third party with no conventional insurance framework covering the resulting liability or damage.
Between November 2019 and January 2020, Russian satellites Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543 repeatedly approach the American spy satellite USA 245 to within a few hundred kilometers, an episode US Space Command describes as a potentially hostile maneuver.
RPO, rendezvous and proximity operations, satellite inspecteur, manœuvre de rapprochement