'Lost' Satellite Found After Orbiting Undetected For 25 Years

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Source: Found here

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After 25 years of drifting undetected in space, an experimental satellite that launched in 1974 has been found using tracking data from the U.S. Space Force.

"The problem is that it possibly has a very low radar cross section," McDowell told Gizmodo in a phone interview. "And maybe the thing that they're tracking is a dispenser or a piece of the balloon that didn't deploy right, so it's not metal and doesn't show up well on radar."

It's not an easy task to know the location and identity of every single object that's in orbit as there are more than 20,000 at the moment. By using ground-based radar as well as optical sensors, space junk can be tracked and when appropriate put into a satellite catalogue, but determining exactly what each item is has challenges. The sensors can pick up on an object in orbit but then it has to be matched with a satellite that's also on the same path.

"If you've got a recent orbital data set, and there's not too many things that are similar orbit, it's probably an easy match," McDowell said. "But if it's a very crowded bit of parameter space, and you haven't seen it for a while, then it's not so easy to match up."

Post launch, ground engineers have a good idea of where a satellite is headed and the altitude it's expected to drift to. With this information in the log, they can take a look back at the progression and compare it to where the satellite was last reported. However, to throw a wrench into that, if there's are any alteration to the original maneuvering plans or if a satellite drifts in orbit, engineers have more work to do to find it again.