NPR

Amateur Astronomer Finds NASA Satellite Long Given Up For Dead

Scott Tilley was searching for a secret U.S. spy satellite when he found the spacecraft. "The odds are extremely good that it's alive," said a mission co-investigator.
The IMAGE spacecraft undergoes preflight testing in March 2000.

NASA's IMAGE spacecraft spent five years studying the Earth's magnetosphere, but when its signal blinked off in 2005, the space agency called it a mission and moved on.

Twelve years later, enter amateur astronomer Scott Tilley.

Tilley was scanning the this month after launch from Cape Canaveral by a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster.

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