Following its launch, the Olymp-K satellite made several manoeuvres before settling at 18.1° West longitude around 4 April 2015. The satellite was then positioned in an orbit directly between Intelsat 901, which was located at 18° West, and Intelsat 7, located at 18.2° West. It remained in geosynchronous orbit between the satellites for five months. At times, Olymp-K performed colocation manoeuvres, positioning itself around 10 kilometres from the satellites. In September 2015, the satellite was manoeuvred to a position at 24.4° West, adjacent to the Intelsat 905 satellite. While JFCC SPACE spokesperson and Air Force Captain Nicholas Mercurio said there were three occasions where the Olymp-K satellite had come within five kilometres of another satellite, an industry source indicated that Air Force data were predictions based on drift rates and that Olymp-K's approach had not brought it closer than 10 kilometres to the Intelsat satellites. As of December 2019, the satellite is located at 70.6° East Longitude. In 2018 France criticised Russia for manoeuvring the satellite close to the French Athena-Fidus satellite. Florence Parly, the French defence minister, accused Russia of "an act of espionage".
Analysis and response
criticized the maneouvres, with Intelsat General president Kay Sears saying that "this is not normal behavior and we're concerned." Attempts by Intelsat to contact the owners of the Russian satellite directly and via the US Defense Department did not receive a response. Members of the space community consider the incident to be among the first documented instances of a foreign military satellite approaching a commercial operator in such a manner. In a 5 October analysis of Russian proximity and rendezvous operations written for the Space Review, Secure World Foundationtechnical adviser Brian Weeden highlighted Olymp-K's movements. In his paper, he wrote that many Russian space program observers believe the satellite mission involves signals intelligence or communications. Observers also speculated whether there is a connection between Olymp-K and the Yenisey A1 experimental satellite. A Kommersant report indicated that Olymp-K would provide secure governmental communications as well as electronic intelligence. Sources have also reported that the satellite has an onboard laser communications device and will provide the GLONASS system with navigation correction signals. Olymp-K's maneouvres were reported to have led to several classified meetings within the U.S. Defense Department.
