The American satellite, considered out of order and lost since 1967, got back in touch and began transmitting messages to Earth after 46 years of oblivion. The device itself is one of several satellites of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, created between 1965 and 1976 to test new technologies for satellite communications.
For a simpler designation of each of the satellites, they were given the names LES1-LES9. LES1-LES4 launches were considered partially unsuccessful. Identical twin satellites LES1 and LES2 were planned to be put into an elliptical orbit of 2800 x 15,000 kilometers, but the problem in the booster stage of the launch vehicle prevented the launch of LES1 into the planned orbit - the satellite remained in a circular orbit at an altitude of 2800 kilometers.
LES1 satellite
The LES3-LES4 satellites were planned to be put into geostationary orbit, but due to launch problems, the vehicles managed to reach only the transfer orbit. Despite the fact that the first four vehicles were brought to unplanned coordinates, they all coped well with their changed tasks. The launches of the LES5, LES6, LES8 and LES9 spacecraft, in turn, took place normally, and the satellites were placed on pre-planned trajectories. As for the LES7 satellite, its launch was canceled due to lack of funding and ultimately the closure of the program.
In 2013, a British amateur astronomer from North Cornwall caught a radio signal that turned out to be a signal from the LES1 satellite, built by MIT in 1965. The device, which never went into a given orbit, has been rotating around the Earth since its launch, remaining completely uncontrolled.
Phil Williams, an amateur radio astronomer from the British town of Boudé, picked up a signal that repeated every four seconds. The intermittent signal could be explained by the fact that the apparatus is constantly rotating and its solar panels from time to time turn away from the Sun, falling into the shadow cast by its engines.
“The voltage in solar panels jumps and that can make the signal ghostly,” Williams says.
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It is likely that the satellite's onboard batteries have been completely destroyed, so something else could be the power source for the 237 MHz signal. The device itself is no larger than a compact car and poses no more danger than any other type of space debris in orbit.
The fact that the electronics of the apparatus, built about 50 years ago, 12 years before the launch of the Voyager 1 probe and long before the creation of microprocessors and integrated electronic microcircuits, is still in working order, having spent more than a dozen years in harsh conditions space, says a lot.
LES1 and LES2, identical in almost all parameters, were planned to be used as experimental communication satellites. Both are equipped with an X-band radio transmitter, an 8-point electronically adjustable antenna and have been used for altitude control and sensing experiments.
The main task of this space program was to build, launch and test systems that could be used in the future on military space satellites.
The launch of LES1 from the launch pad of the cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral took place on February 11, 1965. He never made it to the specified orbit. Launched a little later, LES2 still reached the planned coordinates, but much later than the planned date.
LES1 satellite signal
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK