The Black Knight satellite conspiracy theory claims that a spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin is in near-

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

of the Earth, and that

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

is covering up its existence and origin. This conspiracy theory combines several unrelated stories into one narrative. A photo taken during the

STS-88 STS-88 was the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was flown by Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'', and took the first American module, the ''Unity'' node, to the station. The seven-day mission was highlighted by ...

mission claimed by some to show the Black Knight satellite is catalogued by NASA as a photo of space debris, and space journalist

James Oberg James Edward Oberg (born November 7, 1944) is an American space journalist and historian, regarded as an expert on the Russian and Chinese space programs. He had a 22-year career as a space engineer in NASA specializing in orbital rendezvous. Ob ...

considers it as probable debris of a thermal blanket confirmed as lost during the mission.

History

According to some

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

conspiracists, the Black Knight is an

artificial satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...

of extraterrestrial origin that has orbited Earth for approximately 13,000 years; the "satellite" story is most likely a conflation of several disconnected stories about various objects and their interpretations, all of them well documented independently and none using the term ''Black Knight'' upon their first publication. According to senior education support officer Martina Redpath of Armagh Planetarium in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

: The origin of the Black Knight legend is often "retrospectively dated" back to natural extraterrestrial repeating sources supposedly heard during the 1899 radio experiments of

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''

long delayed echoes first heard by amateur radio operator Jørgen Hals in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

, Norway, in 1928. Brian Dunning of the ''

Skeptoid Brian Andrew Dunning (born 1965) is an American writer and producer who focuses on science and skepticism. He has hosted a weekly podcast, ''Skeptoid'', since 2006, and he is an author of a series of books on the subject of scientific skepticism, ...

'' podcast attributes Tesla's 1899 radio signals to pulsars, which were not identified until 1968. In 1954, UFO researcher

Donald Keyhoe Donald Edward Keyhoe (June 20, 1897 – November 29, 1988) was an American Marine Corps naval aviator, Donald E(dward) Keyhoe. (April 30, 1998) Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, M ...

told newspapers that the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

had reported that two satellites orbiting Earth had been detected. At that time, no country had the technology to launch a satellite.

Skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

have noted that Keyhoe had been promoting a UFO book at the time, and the news stories were likely written "

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...

" and not intended to be taken seriously. A British rocket called the Black Knight rocket was used in conjunction with the

Blue Streak missile The de Havilland Propellers Blue Streak was a British Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and later the first stage of the Europa satellite launch vehicle. Blue Streak was cancelled without entering full production. The project was ...

program between 1958 and 1965, to test re-entry vehicles. A "Black Knight satellite launcher" project announced in 1964 was considered a priority by the

Ministry of Aviation The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply. ...

. The program never put anything into orbit, and it is unrelated to the Black Knight satellite legend. In February 1960, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' reported that the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

had detected a dark object thought to be a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

spy satellite in orbit. A follow-up article confirmed that the object was "the remains of an Air Force

Discoverer 8 Discoverer 8, also known as Corona 9005, was an American optical reconnaissance satellite launched on 20 November 1959 at 19:25:24 GMT, the fifth of ten operational flights of the Corona KH-1 spy satellite series. Overburn by the carrier rocket ...

satellite that had gone astray." In 1963, astronaut

Gordon Cooper Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human spa ...

supposedly reported a UFO sighting during his 15th orbit in Mercury 9 that was confirmed by tracking stations, but there is no evidence that this happened. Neither NASA's mission transcripts nor Cooper's personal copies show any such report being made during the orbit. In 1973, Scottish author Duncan Lunan analysed the long delayed radio echoes received by Hals and others and speculated that they could possibly originate from a 13,000 year old alien probe located in an orbit around the Earth's Moon. He suggested that the probe may have originated from a planet located in the solar system of star

Epsilon Boötis Epsilon Boötis (ε Boötis, abbreviated Epsilon Boo, ε Boo), officially named Izar , is a binary star in the northern constellation of Boötes. The star system can be viewed with the unaided eye at night, but resolving the pair with a ...

. Lunan later retracted his conclusions, saying that he had made "outright errors" and that his methods had been "unscientific". Space debris photographed in 1998 during the

mission has been widely claimed to be the Black Knight satellite. Space journalist

considers it probable that the photographs are of a thermal blanket that was confirmed as lost during an

EVA Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...

by Jerry L. Ross and

James H. Newman James Hansen Newman, Ph.D. (born October 16, 1956) is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. NASA career After graduating from Rice University in 1984, Newman did an additional year of post ...

References

{{Conspiracy theories Images from satellites 1998 hoaxes UFO conspiracy theories