NASA tries to contact ‘lost’ satellite after amateur discovery

The American space agency NASA is trying to make contact with a satellite that lost contact in 2005. The attempt follows the discovery of the so-called Image satellite by an amateur astronomer.

NASA writes that it has obtained time on the Deep Space Network to determine whether it is actually the long-lost Image satellite. on his blog amateur astronomer Scott Tilley writes that he has received a message from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center that “all indications indicate that it is indeed Image.” According to NASA, establishing contact requires that the necessary software and associated commands be found first.

Tilley says he made his discovery during a search for the Zuma spacecraft, which may have sunk after being launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. Instead, however, he encountered another signal.

Image was launched in 2000 to investigate the Earth’s magnetosphere. The colossus measures approximately 2.5×1.5m and weighs almost half a ton. The satellite has four antennas, 250 meters long, which are connected to a radio plasma imager. On December 18, 2005, NASA lost contact with the satellite. A short circuit was identified as the cause.