A zombie satellite is a

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

that begins communicating again after an extended period of inactivity. It is a type of

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...

, which describes all defunct human-made objects in outer space. At the end of their service life, the majority of satellites suffer from

orbital decay Orbital decay is a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods. These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite, a star and any object orbiting it, or ...

and are destroyed by the heat of

atmospheric entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

. Zombie satellites, however, maintain a stable orbit but are either partially or completely inoperable, preventing operators from communicating with them consistently.

History

Transit 5B-5

One of the oldest known zombie satellites is Transit 5B-5. It was launched in 1965 as part of the

Transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1980 film), a 1980 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (1986 film), a Canadian short film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countrie ...

system, one of the first

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are ope ...

systems. Transit 5B-5 is solar powered and still in a stable

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of abo ...

, though operators are unable to control it.

LES-1

LES-1, also known as Lincoln Experimental Satellite 1, was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

launched by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

on February 11, 1965, to study the use of

Super High Frequency Super high frequency (SHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range between 3 and 30 gigahertz (GHz). This band of frequencies is also known as the centimetre band or centimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one ...

radio transmissions. It never achieved optimal orbit and was out of contact for more than 40 years before spontaneously resuming transmissions in 2012.

AMSAT-OSCAR 7

AMSAT-OSCAR 7 is an amateur-radio communications satellite which was launched into Low Earth Orbit on November 15, 1974, and remained operational until a battery failure in 1981. Then after 21 years of apparent silence, the satellite was heard again on June 21, 2002 – 27 years after launch.

Galaxy 15

Galaxy 15 is a U.S. telecommunications satellite launched in 2005. In April 2010, only five years into a planned 15-year mission, its operator,

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

, lost control of the satellite and it drifted out of its orbital slot. Several months later, on December 27, 2010, the satellite rebooted itself and began responding to commands again. Intelsat re-positioned it back to its original orbital slot in April 2011.

IMAGE

Launched in 2000,

IMAGE An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...

(Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

spacecraft studying the Earth's

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior Dynamo ...

, unexpectedly ceased operations in December 2005. It was a zombie satellite until Scott Tilley, an amateur radio operator living in Canada tracked it down in January 2018. On February 25, contact with IMAGE was again lost. It was reestablished in March but lost again in August. NASA is currently evaluating a recovery mission.

LES-5

On March 24, 2020, contact with another lost Lincoln Experimental Satellite, LES-5, was made by Scott Tilley. The satellite is only in operation when its solar panels are receiving sunlight.

References

{{Reflist Satellites Space debris