Hearing the Dead

Satellites, that is... 

Miles and miles above the ground, thousands of metal bodies with specialized instruments orbit our blue and green marble of a world, taking photos, surveying weather phenomena, and even providing amateurs with extraterrestrial repeater service! 

With that being said, I can't emphasize how many orbit the earth - there are so many that concerns have been raised about the threat of space debris falling from the sky. In recent months, space debris from old satellites have fallen from the sky, and in rare but not impossible instances, they have ended up in someone's home. 

However, some of these pieces of space junk have been found to be fully alive! After 40, 50, and even 60 years, some satellites just spring back to life. Below are a few examples of ones I've found - and heard!!!

Transit 5B-5

The Transit class of satellites were launched by the US Navy in the late 1950s and the 1960s. The Transit system was a successful attempt at early, rudimentary GPS service. Many of the satellites failed, as per usual, due to aging on-board systems. One such one was Transit 5B-5.

Transit 5B-5 is, as of writing this, the oldest satellite in orbit to still be transmitting a signal. Despite its telemetry beacon being non-coherent (for now...), the satellite is transmitting something. You can track Transit at a frequency of 136.650MHz.

LES-1 and LES-5

These satellites were part of the Lincoln Experimental Satellite program developed by the United States Air Force and built by MIT to study the use of Super High Frequency (SHF, around 7 or 8GHz). Just like Transit, both of these send out telemetry beacons at or around 237MHz. Data scientists believe that it is sending a 100-baud signal. LES-1 was launched in 1965, and LES-5 was launched just 2 years later, in 1967.

These satellites are believed to be orbiting while tumbling. You can clearly hear the transmitter "warm up" as it comes into view of the sun, and you can hear it change tone as it rotates.

AMSAT-OSCAR 7

I'm sure you know about this one!

AMSAT-OSCAR 7, or just Oscar 7, was one of the first attempts at taking amateur radio into space. Oscar 7 had several features aboard - two repeater systems as well as beacons on the 10m and 70cm bands. Launched in 1974, Oscar 7 went offline in the early 1980s. 

After 20 years, in 2002, the solar panels replaced the on-board and became the sole power of the craft. It is only active, as a result, in the sunlight. More information can be found on the AMSAT website.

NOAA 15

While this isn't a zombie satellite per se, I wanted to add it here because it's been running WAY longer than what NOAA anticipated. It was launched in 1998 and has been functioning for almost 30 years! NOAA 15 is part of the POES line of satellites, a prodigy of the TIROS series of NOAA satellites. On board, they feature AVHRR cameras that are then broadcast back to earth on a frequency of 137.100, 137.500, or 137.925. Software such as WXtoIMG or NoaaAPT are some great examples and are easy to use.

NOAA 9

This is unconfirmed to be an actual zombie satellite, but reports online have shown that one of the transmitters has started working again as of 1999 on 136.770MHz. It is in the same family as NOAA 15. It only works, like many of the satellites we've covered, when the spacecraft is in the sunlight.

I know I may have missed a few, so please comment if you've found any or would like to update this list!

Recently, I have found out that the remaining operational NOAA satellites were recently reallocated to the private sector. NOAA contracted NOAA 15, 18, and 19 to Parsons Corporation in fall 2022 to pave the way for "cloud-based satellite imagery." This won't affect the health or current operations of these three satellites, but it's good to see that NOAA still cares about these elderly satellites. More info on that here: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/noaa-using-new-cloud-based-system-and-business-model-supply-data-older-environmental-satellite-fleet. 

Well, that's about it for now. Stay tuned for more!!!