A Russian spy satellite has been launched at the exact moment the mysterious American USA-326 passed over the cosmodrome - AIRLIVE

Its mission, to place the military satellite Kosmos-2558 in orbit.

If its precise role is kept secret, it is very likely that it is a spy satellite: its sensors are not turned towards the Earth, but towards another spacecraft.

The best clue to the purpose of this mysterious satellite launch is another, even more mysterious satellite.

This new high-tech reconnaissance satellite has aroused the curiosity of Russian counterintelligence officers.

“We assume that [the Russian satellite] has optimized sensors allowing it to observe other satellites, unlike the usual observation satellites, equipped to take images of the ground” , specifies Marco Langbroek.