"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," space consultant Stuart Eves told the BBC. "And unfortunately this brings it close to other satellite traffic on a regular basis."
Despite his best efforts, Eves has yet to figure out why the UK's oldest spacecraft mysteriously wandered thousands of miles west. While it helped British forces to communicate with other bases across the entire globe, Skynet-1A was built by and launched in the United States.
The Americans originally controlled the satellite in orbit," Graham Davison told the BBC. "Documents suggest the US was in control when Oakhanger lost sight of the ancient satellite in June 1977. However, instead of being returned, the satellite remained unmonitored.
Collection
[
|
...
]