1965

Lincoln Experimental Satellite 1

A military communications satellite.
Launched February 11, 1965.
Built to communicate.

Shortly after launch,
it stopped responding.

47
YEARS OF SILENCE

For 47 years it drifted in orbit.
Presumed dead.

2012

Amateur radio operators detected signals.

LES-1 was
broadcasting
again.

No timer.
No scheduled wake function.

Something about its decades in space
flipped a switch.

It spoke into the void
and someone,
impossibly,
heard it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LES-1