A satellite that stopped working 50 years ago has drifted ashore thousands of miles from where it was supposed to be. Instead of spending its afterlife in an orbital graveyard, the communications satellite now orbits over the American continent, for reasons unknown, perhaps because someone moved it there.
Skynet-1A was launched into geostationary orbit over eastern Africa in 1969 and was used by the British military for communications. At the end of its life, the satellite was to drift toward a point in its orbit where it could die peacefully, avoiding the risk of colliding with other malfunctioning spacecraft. According to the BBC, rather than passively drifting, the satellite was mysteriously ordered to a completely new position in orbit: 36,000 kilometers above the American continent. reported. In its current position, the long-vanished satellite is likely to collide with other space debris.
The BBC’s Jonathan Amos recently unraveled the mystery of Skynet 1A, investigating who operated Britain’s oldest satellite at some point in the 1970s. Even stranger, it might have been American.
Based on how far the satellite traveled from its original location, this was not a passive drift of a large communications spacecraft. Instead, someone intentionally fired the satellite’s thrusters to move it westward.
Skynet-1A, manufactured in the United States, was launched aboard a U.S. Air Force Delta rocket. In fact, when it was first launched, the US tested the satellite in space before handing over control to the Royal Air Force. Some of the satellite documents reviewed by the BBC suggest that control of Skynet 1A was returned to the United States in June 1977, and that the United States was responsible for ultimate command of the satellite.
Oddly enough, the satellite traveled half way around the globe and ended up directly over the Americas (GEO satellites remain fixed to the same location on the Earth’s surface). Skynet-1A’s final maneuver would have lifted the satellite into a higher orbit, an area known as the orbital graveyard, where failed satellites stay out of trouble. Currently, the UK Ministry of Defense is closely monitoring satellites in their current orbits in case of any threat of collision.
Whether we’re talking about geostationary orbit or low-Earth orbit, not knowing where our objects are in space is obviously not ideal. The Department of Defense’s global space surveillance network currently tracking More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris. Incoming space debris risks colliding with other satellites in orbit, and the situation would only get worse if the spacecraft dies and drifts adrift.
While orbital debris wasn’t a pressing issue when Skynet 1A was first launched, it certainly is today. As a result, companies must monitor where their satellites land in Earth’s orbit and track them even if they are more than 50 years old.
