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OSCAR 7 is Alive

Posted by timothy on from the greatly-exaggerated dept.

AB3A writes :"Originally launched November 15, 1974, OSCAR 7 was long thought to be dead from natural causes (radiation, battery failure, space junk, etc.). However, AMSAT reports that it has recently been heard on the air! This probably isn't a record, but it does rank right up there with spacecraft such as Pioneer. I wonder how many other satellites out there have been given up for dead but are still functional at some reduced capacity?"

6 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Was alive by heikkile · · Score: 3, Funny

    But now it is dead again, thanks to the slashdot effect

    --

    In Murphy We Turst

  2. the real thing? by tps12 · · Score: 3, Funny
    Interesting. So this satellite has long since dropped off the face of the solar system. And then, one day, without warning...it's back?

    Excuse me?

    News flash: satellites don't fix themselves.

    As Sherlock Holmes was fond of saying, "once you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be correct." Or something to that effect.

    In any case, I see to possibilities as to what really happened:
    1. the satellite was "replaced" by a foreign government, so as to appear to be the genuine OSCAR 7 while monitoring all of our transmissions, and
    2. the satellite was "replaced" by...someone else.
    Now I'm not one to start telling UFO stories, but I don't want to rule out the second possibility (see Holmes quotation above). At the very least, we should approach the purported OSCAR 7 very cautiously. And we might want to start preparing a welcoming committee, too...just in case.
    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
    1. Re:the real thing? by Cryptosporidium · · Score: 2, Funny

      "And Sherlock Holmes was a character."

      Ah, that's what you think. They may have already gotten to you.

    2. Re:the real thing? by Red_Winestain · · Score: 4, Funny
      As Sherlock Holmes was fond of saying, "once you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be correct."

      But as Dirk Gently rejoins, "I reject that entirely...The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks."

  3. getting close to July 4th you know what that means by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Funny

    "They're using our own satellites against us!"

    Somebody get ahold of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. I've got a project for them.

    Or maybe we should just hand this one off to the Men in Black.

  4. Oh, shit by Snafoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here we go again.

    Someone prepare a bald-headed chick and a transporter beam... 'ocar' is back.

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    - undoware.ca