Amateur Satellite Watcher Discovers NASA's Dead Satellite is Alive

by DontGive

An amateur satellite observer scanning frequencies for ZUMA has discovered another satellite thought to be dead - is alive!

While scanning some side bands, Scott Tilley, found something else surprising.

Upon reviewing the data from January 20, 2018, I noticed a curve consistent with an satellite in High Earth Orbit (HEO) on 2275.905MHz, darn not ZUMA… This is not uncommon during these searches. So I set to work to identify the source.
A quick identity scan using ‘strf’ (sat tools rf) revealed the signal to come from 2000-017A, 26113, called IMAGE.

So with an undead satellite to monitor, I took up the task of collecting more data about it and let the system carry on without me in the search for ZUMA for a few hours. Based on information in the NASA failure report and eoPortal the nominal spin rate of the spacecraft was noted as around 0.5 rpm that’s a period of about 120 seconds. By monitoring with my real-time receiver (see below) I was able to notice both a subtle period in the signal amplitude and frequency that appeared to be coincident.

NASA confirmed they were on it, and immediately started a small team to investigate.

I have attached the TLE I got this morning from JSPoC/CARA. Looks like a close match. We are in the process of engaging the Deep Space Network to see if they can get a signal lock. They (JPL/DSN) are in the process of digging up 13-year old configuration files for that attempt. The DSN has evolved since then so some adjustments to their system setups will be required.

This is ongoing, with a few amateurs confirming that you can do this simple observation with cheap hardware. Others confirmed that all eyes were on deck looking for any signs of the presumed lost top-secret ZUMA hardware. The hardware is thought to be recently lost by a failed separation from SpaceX's last commercial payload launch.

https://ponzied.com/topic/45/amateur-satellite-watcher-discovers-nasa-s-dead-satellite-is-alive