Black Knight Satellite
208 Words
The Black Knight satellite is a popular conspiracy theory claiming that a mysterious object—orbiting Earth in a near-polar trajectory for ~13,000 years—is of extraterrestrial origin . This myth blends several unrelated stories across time:
Nikola Tesla’s 1899 ‘alien’ radio signals, later thought to be natural astrophysical sources (likely pulsars) .
Long Delayed Echoes from the 1920s–30s—unexplained radio echoes once ascribed by some to a satellite’s reflection .
1950s claims of unidentified satellites detected by the U.S. Air Force before Sputnik (often traced to UFO-promoter Donald Keyhoe’s reports) .
A 1960 radar sighting later revealed as debris from the Discoverer spy satellite .
1998 STS‑88 images of a dark, tumbling object during ISS construction—later explained by NASA as a thermal blanket lost during a spacewalk, catalogued as item 025570 before burning up a few days later .
Space science journalist James Oberg, who spoke with astronaut Jerry Ross and cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, confirmed the object was space-junk—not an alien artifact .
Astronomers and skeptics consistently highlight how disparate events—radio signals, radar blips, stray debris—were woven into a compelling yet unfounded narrative of alien surveillance, fueled further by sensationalist media .
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