I do aerospace for a living. Years ago some co-workers and I were discussing the best way an astronaut could foulup a Soviet satellite. Simply destroying it would be too obvious (the Soviets would simply replace it and also get seriously pissed off). Fooling with the satellite in an obvious way would be dangerous for the astronaut (Soviet satellites were typically rigged to explosively self destruct). It was suggested that the best way to foul up a bad guy’s satellite would be to attach a long flexible rod (2 meters long) with a vicegrip to the satellite and on the other end of the flexible rod attach a one kilogram weight. After that, whenever the satellite did an attitude adjust, the flexible rod would wag back and worth like a dog’s tail. Controlling the satellite would then be almost impossible. The bad guy wouldn’t realize that his satellite had been sabotaged and instead assume it had a design fault. He’d waste his time trying to fix it rather than replace it with a new satellite.

I was thinking a satellite with “interplaneterary mission engines which be fired thousands of times, large fuel tanks” could just keep gently nudging the other guy’s satelllite, causing it to eventually run out of fuel readjusting, but your idea is much better. Still, I’d make sure the flexible rod and the 1kg weight were stamped “Made in France” just to be sure…