The military satellite, launched 56 years ago, has been diverted from orbit — and no one is yet sure who did it or why.
In 1969, Britain launched Skynet-1A — a military communications satellite placed in orbit over the east coast of Africa to transmit information to the British armed forces.
It stopped working due to equipment problems around 18 months after the launch and was left in Earth orbit – it is now the oldest British spacecraft still in space.
In the 1970s, the satellite was in geostationary orbit at about 40° east longitude. However, currently he is no longer where he should be, they inform Noi.mdwith reference to .
“If Skynet-1A had failed at its operating point at about 40°E longitude, we would have expected it to oscillate +/-35 degrees in either direction from 75°E longitude. But according to the British registry, Skynet-1A is currently at 105W longitude, deviating by only a few degrees,” explains the systems engineer. satellite, Dr. Stuart Ives.
It is currently about 36,000 kilometers above America. At some point in recent years, the satellite was probably moved, but no one seems to know when, by whom, or why.
Tracking of the satellite was sketchy, especially in the mid-1970s, when the maneuver apparently took place, and any records of what happened seem to have been lost.
