Somebody moved UK's oldest satellite, and no-one knows who or why
Somebody moved UK's oldest satellite, and no-one knows who or why
Britain's oldest satellite is in the wrong part of the sky, but no-one's really sure who moved it.
Summary
The UK’s oldest satellite, Skynet-1A, launched in 1969, has mysteriously shifted from its original orbit over Africa to a high-risk position over the Americas.
It’s suspected that in the 1970s, Skynet-1A was intentionally moved west, possibly by U.S. controllers, but records confirming who made this decision and why are missing.
Now inactive, the satellite poses collision risks to active satellites, as it occupies a congested orbit at 105 degrees West longitude.
The UK may eventually need to consider relocating Skynet-1A or removing it altogether to mitigate risks from space debris.
BECAUSE IT WAS BLOCKING MY FUCKING VIEW!
Christ, I warned them and warned them.
And now it's blocking MY view. I'm moving it back! How the hell am I suppose to look at naked men from space with that dinosaur in my way? FFS!
Never underestimate how far amateur radio telescope operators will go for a clean sky.
Marvin, is that you?
Deploy the space Rooba!
We need to avoid what I call super-spreader events.
Or what everyone else calls the Kessler syndrome.
It's not Kessler Syndrome until it's so bad that we can't feasibly launch anything new. A single cascading collision chain might calm down again after breaking a lot of stuff without any catastrophic long term impact if all the debris ends up either in a stable orbit that can be predicted and avoided by other objects, or unstable orbits that decay until the debris falls out of orbit.
They shouldn't worry so much about why the original satellite is in a new orbit. They should worry about the indistinguishable replica which took its place.
wait, 55 years old satellite still has fuel for thrusters?
If I know correctly, some satellites have ionic propellers, needing just electricity to function.
I thought we had a good idea what was where in orbit. How is this a sudden surprise? I had first read it thinking that it had drifted recently for some reason, but it's been in that place for 50 years. I get that as more satellites go up things become more risky, but this should have been a known problem a long time ago.
The way I read it is that it's old news, but who did it still isn't publicized. I'm sure some people know who did it, just not the public.
Given that it was done in the 70s, probably by people who were at least in their 40s at the time, it's very possible that they're all dead by now.
aliens