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Fri 30 May, 2008 07:58 am
This website tells of satellite Explorer 7 - launched in October, 1959; went silent in 1961. It is still in orbit after almost 49 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_7
Is this the oldest man-made object still in space? I think everything earlier has fallen out of orbit.
Will we someday have "space archeology" - retreiving and studying old satellites from orbit?
Don't know about studying that junk, but we probably need to send up something like a mine sweeper to clear out all the hazards to navigation.
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