Posted on 05/04/2020 7:31:55 AM PDT by L.A.Justice
A “zombie satellite” orbiting earth since 1967 when it was launched by the U.S. military, has been discovered by a radio enthusiast.
NPR reports that the discovery was made by amateur radio operator Scott Tilley, who lives in British Columbia, Canada.
“Well folks, here's what appears to be a new ZOMBIE SAT!” Tilley tweeted on March 24. Satellite LES-5, he explained, is in a “GEO [Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit] graveyard orbit.”
Tilley also noted subsequent passes by LES-5.
Graveyard orbit -- where old satellites go to die -- is about 22,400 miles above the earth, according to NASA, which notes that this is almost 200 miles farther from our planet than the farthest active satellites.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
check it out for yourself.
Is this the manhole cover?
Bkmrk
He “discovered” a satellite, known - at least - since it’s launch over 50 years ago? Next up, he discovers Venus and Mercury.
I was thinking the “Dark Knight” satellite that is the basis for a bunch of conspiracies.
According to the article it’s transmitting. Maybe it was quiet for a while and suddenly the batteries got a charge? Somebody ‘parked’ that satellite into it’s current orbit, so obviously somebody at NASA JPL or the Pentagon knows it was there.
Not too hard to “discover” if you put “LES-5 two line element” into google you can get NORAD tracking information on it.
Another amazing piece of journalism where it is highlighting someone discovering something that has been known about for over 50 years. Do the writers think this satellite was launched then just disappeared and forgotten about? And this little Canadian clown just discovered it?
Looks like the transmitter is powered solely by the solar arrays; the only battery on board was supposed to switch the radio off after five years, but did not do so. The solar-powered transmissions are how the radio signal was identified - frequency and interval (radio signals stop when it is in eclipse).
My son works at NASA. One of his missions had a satellite that failed. I think one of the gyroscopes broke and the solar panels turned from the sun. It was dead for several years in a safe orbit 1,000,000 miles away. The panels rotated and got charged and the thing has been operational ever since, 20 years beyond its mission scope.
“Another amazing piece of journalism...Do the writers think this satellite was launched then just disappeared and forgotten about? And this little Canadian clown just discovered it?” [redfreedom, post 11]
Tracking objects in earth orbit is nothing like locating a stolen car nor a missing child here on the surface of our planet.
The military establishment tracks thousands of objects orbiting the planet, from the International Space Station down to nuts and bolts. This data is passed to NASA and other agencies.
https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/the-recovery-of-les-5/
Thanks to TexasGator you may read a more complete version of the story at the second URL.
LES-5 was one of several experimental satellites developed by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories to explore the feasibility of UHF satellite communications from near-geosynchronous orbit. It was built with a five-year service life and was supposed to turn itself off at the end of that. Like many satellites, it was not deliberately de-orbited.
NORAD has been keeping track of it for years but likely doesn’t know its history, nor care.
The real news is not the rediscovery that LES-5 is still orbiting, but that some of its systems are still operating, and that it transmits radio signals. The transmissions have been verified to be coming from this particular satellite, but the data has yet to be decoded. Recording, storage and formats have changed in the intervening years. Documentation on other systems has been permanently lost.
The military establishment tracks thousands of objects orbiting the planet, from the International Space Station down to nuts and bolts. This data is passed to NASA and other agencies.
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I do remember movie MOONRAKER...
Hugo Drax has a secret space station which is not detected by US military...Agent 007 gets on the space station and destroys jamming system...Then US military sees Drax’s space station...
George Romero’s “Dead” movies started with a Venus probe returning to earth.
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