What Is the So-Called Black Knight Satellite?

 

Have you ever wondered what the Black Knight Satellite actually is? Most of us have heard stories about the Black Knight Satellite; ufologists believe it to be an extraterrestrial satellite that has been orbiting Earth for over fifty years. Tesla is said to have intercepted radio signals of this mysterious object and the questions surrounding the so-called Black Knight Satellite have been increasing in the recent years. But what is it? Has anyone a logical explanation? Well, there are several theories as to what this object is; space debris, Russian spy satellite, Chinese spy satellite, thermal blankets, rocket casings and extraterrestrial satellite, so take your pick.
Skeptics believe that the “Black Knight” is just another piece of space debris, most likely originating from a thermal blanket of one of the Extravehicular activities performed, and that there is no actual radio signal being emitted from it.
So where does the extraterrestrial part come from? Well the alien part actually became a possibility in 1954 when two newspaper agencies wrote a couple of stories regarding two satellites that had been detected in orbit around our planet, the only thing here is we had not launched any satellites at that time. The reports allegedly originated in the US Air Force. If we had not launched a satellite into space at that time, then who did? Who else had the capabilities on placing a satellite into orbit (and not just any orbit, but polar orbit) at that time?
But perhaps the more accurate question to ask here is where did the information of the articles of 1954 come from? If the articles were written thanks to information received from the Air force or similar agencies then can the authenticity of the black knight be verified? Some point toward the fact that the articles regarding the mysterious object in space are connected to author Donald Keyhoe who was an American Marine Corps naval aviator writer and UFO researcher. Many today believe that those newspaper articles were merely wild claims to boost book sales.
Bells started ringing when newspaper agencies came up with articles stating that there was something orbiting Earth, and it did not belong to the United States nor Russia. The object, “the Black Knight” popped up on a radar screen of the US Navy, designed to locate “spy satellites”, the only strange thing about this object was its eccentric orbit. But not only was the black knight detected by the US, but by several other sources who could not explain its origin. According to the reports, the black knight satellite was orbiting planet Earth at 79 degrees off from the equator, according to calculation the black knight made an orbit every 104.5 minutes and had an apogee of 1,728 km and a perigee of just 216 km, making it truly mysterious. With all of the above information it would make the object certainly an interesting topic of discussion.
Things got really interesting a couple of years after the first time the black knight popped up on radar. In 1963, Gordon Cooper aboard the Mercury 9 spacecraft reported seeing an unidentified object in the distance, the object was emitting a greenish light according to Cooper. The astronauts report was corroborated on Earth with several radars and about one hundred other witnesses detecting and seeing the object. Official reports were that “equipment aboard Mercury 9 has experienced technical difficulties causing electronics aboard to malfunction, that caused Cooper to breath in too much CO2 causing hallucinations.” In later years, Cooper admitted that he never actually saw anything during his Mercury 9 flight, that he did not see green lights, ufo’s or anything similar, Cooper pointed out that the story regarding his UFO encounter during the Mercury 9 mission was pure fabrication by UFO enthusiasts, but this doesn’t really seem logical, especially since NASA gave an explanation to what Cooper had “reportedly seen.”
Cooper was well known for his UFO sightings as he reported numerous UFO’s during his missions, so we know that he wouldn’t just fabricate a story of a UFO sighting during his Mercury 9 mission for the fun of it. Cooper also offered mission transcripts during his Mercury 9 mission to prove that no such sighting had been made. So if Cooper did not see the Black Knight while he was in space, what about all of those people who picked it up on radar?
Well, the name “Black Knight” isn’t that uncommon. The United Kingdom launched over twenty rockets in a program caused the Black Knight, the purpose of these launches was to test reentry vehicles, but no actual “vehicles” have been launched into space in the Black Knight Program.
The story about the Black Knight gets interesting when radio operators picked up a transmission from space, theorists rushed forward to connect the transmission to alleged satellite(s) orbiting Earth. Scientists in Norway picked up Long Delay Echoes (LDEs) when they were experimenting with short wave transmissions into space in 1928, everyone was excited and in awe, since they did not know at that time from where the LDEs were coming from. Their “apparent” answer came in 54 when newspaper articles hit the light stating that there was something in orbit around planet Earth.

The Space debri theory sounds logical as well, specially if you take in count the Discoverer VIII (Corona) launch. Corona started under the name “Discoverer” as part of the WS-117L satellite reconnaissance and protection program of the US Air Force in 1956. Discoverer VIII was launched in 1959, the launch went exceptionally well but its primary mission, to eject its 136 kg capsule was a failure as the capsule went astray into orbit after which it was officially declared as “lost.” The Navy showed interest in these objects and tracked one of the discoverers casings which had an extremely similar orbit to the “Black Knight Satellite”, orbiting Earth every 103 minutes at 80 degrees. Similar but not identical.
Corona was a secret CIA program (operated and produced by the Central Intelligence Agency) of strategic reconnaissance satellites. The “Corona satellites” were basically spy satellites, designated KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A and KH-4B where KH stands for KEy-Hole, like when you spy through the door’s keyhole. These spy satellites were used to spy on the USSR, China, and other countries in 1959.
So are the images we have of the “Black Knight Satellite” actual images? Most likely not, due to the fact that if this satellite is in polar orbit, it would be extremely difficult to photograph it in space. The images that we have today of the “Black Knight Satellite” were taken by the STS-88 mission of the Endeavor space shuttle. The thing about this mission, and other shuttle missions is that they actually fly in a semi-equatorial orbit, just like the International Space station; meaning that the Black Knight, which is in polar orbit would have flown by at thousands of kilometers per hour, extremely fast to even be visible, let alone photographed. With this said, the images we have here are most likely not those of the Black Knight Satellite. This leads us to to conclusions, either the Black Knight Satellite does not exist and never has, or it does exist, its still up there in polar orbit and we do not have any images of it.
The images displayed of the Black Knight Satellite all over the internet are most likely those of a thermal blanket /trunnion pin cover of the STS-88 mission, lost during one of the EVA’s.
Take in count that to obtain actual images of the Black Knight satellite, you would need to put a vehicle in polar orbit which is possible, but photographing the actual object is far more demanding.
Recently, ufologists have claimed that NASA’s high tech spy plane, the X-37 which recently got back to Earth from its 675 day mission was in fact in space to look at the Black Knight, among other things. What this space plane was doing in orbit for 675 days is a mystery as is the payload it carried to space. The X-37 belongs to the US Air Force which owns two X-37’s built by Boeing’s Phantom Works division. OTV-1, OTV-2 and OTV-3 are three of the “known” missions the X-37’s successfully completed.
The Black Knight Satellite might still be out there, still in polar orbit still a mystery, but we do not have any images that can provide enough evidence to state that the Black Knight is, in fact, an object in polar orbit, whose origins are not manmade.
Yet there are many mysteries regarding the Black Knight, like the interest by the Grumman Aircraft Corporation who gave much importance to this mysterious “Satellite.” In fact, on September 3, 1960, seven months after the satellite was first detected by radar, a tracking camera at Grumman Aircraft Corporation’s Long Island factory took a photograph of the Black Knight satellite, this image remains a mystery until today.
Reference:
Associated Press. “Dark Satellite Remains Mystery; Unclaimed by All.” The Southeast Missourian. 11 Feb. 1960, Newspaper: 14.
“Science: Space Watch’s First Catch.” TIME Magazine. 7 Mar. 1960, Magazine.
The Black Knight Satellite – Ancient Code.

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