Lost 1965 ‘zombie satellite’ LES-1 spontaneously reconnects with Earth — baffling scientists

A satellite, LES-1, designed to support military needs and communication, was launched into orbit in February 1965, but it shut down its transmitter in 1967. However, amateur radio operators detected a telemetry signal from LES-1 in 2012. After 45 years of no activity and a signal believed to be dead, it resurfaced at the ultrahigh frequency of 237 MHz, according to Lincoln Laboratory. The mysterious transmission prompted the Lincoln Laboratory to develop a system that could record signals from the first of the Lincoln Experimental Satellites (LES). Experts investigated how the signal was reignited and hypothesized that this “zombie” satellite experienced an electrical short.

To spontaneously start transmitting, its degraded batteries or circuitry had an electrical short, which led power from its solar cells to reach the transmitter directly. A Lincoln Laboratory team developed a system to record LES-1 signals every time the satellite passed over the Laboratory’s main campus in Lexington, Massachusetts. The signals were recorded by an automated rooftop antenna when the satellite came into view, was at its highest point in the sky, and was going over the horizon. Users could see the orbit and approximate position of LES-1 at the time of each recording using an interactive tool, which was pertinent to their observations.

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