Geheime SpaceX-Satelliten der US-Regierung schießen störende Funksignale in den Weltraum, wie ein Astronom zufällig herausfand

„It was just a clumsy move at the keyboard,“ Tilley told NPR. „I was resetting some stuff and then all of a sudden I’m looking at the wrong antenna, the wrong band.“ After comparing the signals to data collected from other amateur astronomers, he realized that they were likely coming from Starshield satellites, which he „wasn’t expecting at all.“ (Tilley’s findings have not yet been peer-reviewed.)

The new signals have frequencies between 2,025 and 2,110 megahertz, which are normally used for „uplink“ signals, sent from Earth-based operators up into space. But in this case, these frequencies are being used to send „downlinks,“ or messages from satellites back to the planet’s surface. As a result, the signals do not fall within the downlink frequencies approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — a United Nations agency that coordinates the use of the radio spectrum across the globe and in space.