NASA Lost Its IMAGE Satellite for 12 Years, Then an Amateur Astronomer Found Its Signal

Details

NASA launched the IMAGE satellite in 2000 to study Earths magnetosphere, the region of space shaped by our planets magnetic field. The spacecraft used several kinds of imaging to track invisible charged particles and investigate how the magnetosphere responds to activity from the Sun. On December 18, 2005, contact with IMAGE unexpectedly stopped. NASA eventually considered the mission lost. More than twelve years later, in January 2018, an amateur astronomer scanning satellite signals detected an unexpected transmission and suspected it might be IMAGE. NASA and mission specialists then confirmed that the signal really was coming from the long-lost spacecraft. Telemetry indicated that important parts of the satellite were still operating. Engineers managed to receive data and send some commands, although the spacecraft did not remain reliably responsive. Its signal weakened again in February, briefly returned strongly in May, and then became inaccessible once more. The exact reason for the original loss of contact remained uncertain. The episode became an unusual example of how an old spacecraft can remain physically present and potentially functional even after ground controllers can no longer communicate with it.