Although it was thought to be lost between Earth and the Moon, this satellite sent in 1974 has, against all odds, resurfaced on American space defense radars.

It’s not uncommon to lose small everyday items such as keys, headphones, a wallet or a smartphone. However, it is less common to lose a satellite in space, and even less common to find it 25 years later halfway between the Earth and the Moon.

Cold War satellite found after 25 years in space

Unfortunately, not all satellite launches are successful, as in the case of the IRCB, launched by the United States in 1974, which mysteriously disappeared in the 1990s. It’s an unusual situation, all the more so because despite scientific research the device only reappeared once before vanishing again.

To recontextualise today’s topic, you need to know that there are currently many satellites above our heads, most of which are up there thanks to Elon Musk’s Starlink. These are the same satellites that are now used to deploy telecommunications and the Internet, as well as to fine-tune weather forecasts. So it’s only natural that they should be sent into orbit overhead on a regular basis.

The satellite we’re talking about today, the IRCB, was originally a spy satellite sent into space during the Cold War as part of a larger satellite. It was when it was due to be deployed that an anomaly occurred and it ended up being considered as space junk before disappearing off the radar altogether.

The IRCB appears to have been identified in the midst of 20,000 other objects in orbit

Although it was considered to be space waste following its failed deployment, the IRCB satellite was lost in the 1990s. Like all space waste, however, it was closely monitored for fear of it falling back to Earth.

Space waste presents two major risks. Firstly, its trajectory becomes unpredictable and it can enter and leave the atmosphere at any time. In addition, there is a risk of collision with a manned flight or another space object such as a satellite, so the challenge will be to deflect it or go around it.

However, much to the surprise of scientists, the satellite suddenly reappeared on Thursday 25 April. According to Jonathan McDowell, an American astrophysicist, this is quite a feat, given that radars already have the onerous task of monitoring nearly 20,000 objects in orbit. The more populated an area, the more complicated it is to identify an unknown object. Since there weren’t many satellites reported missing in this orbit, it would seem that it is indeed the IRCB that has been found after 25 years of wandering in space for lack of other candidates.