Old British military satellite launched in 1969 is drifting into 105W*

N5XZS

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 23, 2005
4,672
2,687
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Has anyone done a blindscan? My wife loves British TV. ;)

200w.gif
 
Questions. If dead, how is it known that it's now at 105? I presume the presence of "something" wobbling around that area is known from radar, but how is it confirmed to be that particular bird? Also how could we have controlled it at its African locale from our west coast- wouldn't it have been over the horizon?

It does seem plausible that we might have just "grabbed it back" from Britain after they upgraded to newer hardware.