S73-7 was observed orbiting 800 kilometers from Earth, among at least 20,000 objects currently orbiting our planet. The missing satellite began its journey on April 10, 1974, as part of a test program for the US Space Force.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, based on data files, S73-7 disappeared from radar not once, but twice. First in the 1970s and then again in the 1990s. “The problem is that it may have been below radar detection range. Perhaps what they recorded was a mechanism or part of the balloon that was not made correctly, and because it was not metal, it did not show up well on the radar.”
“If there is a map of recent orbital data and the orbital field is not crowded, it may be easy to identify. However, if it is a crowded area and the object has not been recorded for a long time, identifying it is not easy at all.”
Satellite S73-7 has been rediscovered after 25 years untracked. New TLEs for object 7244 began appearing on April 25. Congratulations to either @18thSDS The analyst made the identification. pic.twitter.com/YJOow5o4ND
– Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 29, 2024
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