Space & Astronomy

Mystery surrounds anomalous position change of UK's oldest satellite

By T.K. Randall
November 10, 2024 ·  1 comment

Who moved Skynet-1A ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Pablo Carlos Budassi Originally designed to relay communications for British Forces in Africa, this vintage satellite remains the center of an intriguing mystery that continues to endure to this day.

The enigma surrounds the fact that Skynet-1A is no longer where it should be and is now situated in a completely different position around 22,369 miles above the Americas.

Due to orbital mechanics, it couldn't have simply drifted there over time, so that means that someone or something must have deliberately moved it there at some point in the past.

The big question is - who would have done this and for what purpose ?

The mystery is compounded by the fact that any record of such a maneuver being ordered or carried out has been lost, so all we can do is speculate as to the motive.

Worse still, the satellite's position now makes it something of a liability."It's still relevant because whoever did move Skynet-1A did us few favors," space consultant Dr Stuart Eves told the BBC.

"It's now in what we call a 'gravity well' at 105 degrees West longitude, wandering backwards and forwards like a marble at the bottom of a bowl. And unfortunately this brings it close to other satellite traffic on a regular basis."

"Because it's dead, the risk is it might bump into something, and because it's 'our' satellite we're still responsible for it."

One theory is that, due to the fact that the satellite was actually built and launched in the US, the United States Air Force may have regained control of it at some point in the past.

If this is true, records of the decision to move its position may exist in the US archives.

All that we know now is that it should have been moved to an 'orbital graveyard' at the end of its operational life to avoid collisions with active satellites, but for whatever reason it was instead left in this anomalous location where it could pose a risk.

Unless records of its movements resurface, however, we may never know for sure who was responsible for putting it there, when it was moved or why.

Source: BBC News | Comments (1)

Tags: Skynet, Satellite