A Russian aerospace commander has sensationally claimed that some spy satellites are masquerading as space junk in Earth orbit.

The official refused to comment on how many such satellites there were, and which countries were operating them.

It suggests there could be more satellites than thought monitoring different countries on Earth.

The claim was made by the commander of Russian Space Command. Oleg Maidanovich said someone was hiding satellites as space junk (artist's illustration of a satellite shown). But in a film he refused to name the country behind the ruse

The claims were made by the commander of Russian Space Command, Oleg Maidanovich.

He was speaking on a film called ‘Space Special Forces’ during a tour of Russia’s main centre for aerospace intelligence in Krasnoznamensk, near Moscow.

‘Very recently, specialists of the department of space intelligence centre uncovered a newly created group of space satellites... made for radio-technical reconnaissance of equipment on Russian territory,’ he said.

WHAT IS A SPY SATELLITE? A reconnaissance satellite is unofficially referred to as a spy satellite. They are Earth observation satellites or communications satellites traditionally used for military or intelligence purposes. Some are used to simply take images from the ground, while others relay information from one place to another. Many such satellites are used today for high-resolution photography of certain areas, for scientific or defense purposes. Advertisement

The film goes on to state that there ‘are cases when a space satellite pretends to be space junk for years and then wakes up and starts working at the right moment.’

The comments were made yesterday on ‘Space Day’, when Russia commemorated the first human spaceflight - Yuri Gagarin, on 12 April 1961.

Since then hundreds of rockets have been launched into space – and Russia itself now has about 140 satellites operating in orbit.

Their Space Command is a division of the military responsible for warning of missile and air strikes and controlling Russia's defence satellites.

It monitors about 20,000 objects orbiting the planet, out of a total of 100,000 significant objects.

Some objects are believed to have a military purpose - but it’s not quite clear what the purpose of the satellites disguised as space junk are.

MailOnline has asked the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) and Space Command for further information on the claim.