A military spacecraft launch 55 yr ago was displace from its orbit – and nobody is quite sure who did it , or why .

In 1969 the UK launched Skynet-1A , amilitary communicationssatellite placed in celestial orbit above the east coast of Africa so as to relay data to British armed effect . It end working due to hardware issues around18 monthsafter it started operate , and the spacecraft was left to the law of physics to orb the Earth – it is now the oldest UK space vehicle still in space .

It ’s a good idea to hold on defunct satellites , to make trusted the space debris is not on trend to collide with any working satellite or populated field of the Earth below . In the seventies , when the orbiter was close tracked , it was in a geostationary arc at a longitude of around 40 East , where it remained when it was decommission . Such orbital cavity are subject to gravitative perturbations by the Sun , Earth and Moon .

" If Skynet-1A had failed at its operational location of around 40 East , we would now expect it to be hover by + /- 35 arcdegree either side of 75 East , " artificial satellite - system engine driver Dr Stuart Evesexplains in a web log postfor The Global connection on Sustainability in Space .

" Except that it is n’t . According to the UK Registry , Skynet-1A is currently sitting very nigh to the bottom of the other well at 105 West , oscillating by just a couplet of degrees . "

The spacecraft is not where it is supposed to be according to what we recognise about orbits , now some 36,000 km ( 22,369 mile ) above the Americas . At some point in the intervening old age , the satellite has likely been moved – but nobody come along to know when , who , or why . trailing of the satellite has been patchy , particularly in the mid-1970s when the maneuver appears to have taken position , and any records of what happened appear to have been lost .

The satellite , though the UK ’s first , was build and partly operated by the USA , with both commonwealth post commands to it .

" A Skynet team from Oakhanger would go to the USAF planet facility in Sunnyvale ( informally know as the Blue Cube ) and operate Skynet during ' Oakout ' , " Rachel Hill , a PhD scholar from University College London searching the National Archives for clue , evidence theBBC . " This was when control was temporarily transferred to the US while Oakhanger was down for essential sustentation . Perhaps the move could have happened then ? ”

While an interesting whodunit as to who fire it and why , it could become more pressing in the futurity . In its current orbit , the satellite could personate problems for other nearby satellites in geostationary orbit . Should it jar with another , the motion of who issued the order to arouse the satellite ’s thrusters could resolve which country isheld liablefor the impairment .