Scott Tilley's quarantine project was a little unusual: Building an antenna to track down LES-5, an abandoned, experimental military communications satellite launched in 1967. He believes it may be the oldest satellite that's still broadcasting.
British Columbia, where Tilley lives, was on lockdown. Like many of us, suddenly Tilley had time on his hands. He used it to look for LES-5, and on March 24, he hit the ham radio equivalent of pay dirt."The reason this one is kind of intriguing is its telemetry beacon is still operating," Tilley says.
In other words, says Tilley, even though the satellite was supposed to shut down in 1972, it's still going. As long as the solar panels are in the sun, the satellite's radio continues to operate. Tilley thinks it may even be possible to send commands to the satellite. The MIT lab that built LES-5 still does a lot of work on classified projects for the military. NPR contacted its news office to ask if someone could say more about LES-5 and whether it really could still receive commands.It seems that even a 50-year-old zombie satellite might still have secrets.
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