Could Telstar 1 come back without being destroyed?

Question

Telstar has been up there since 1962 and stopped working about a year after that, it's no longer in use.
In those days of asking questions about orbital pollution, wouldn't it be better to have it go down and free up the space? That's one question.

My other question is, if it was to come back to Earth, would it be possible for it not to be destroyed in the process? I have to admit that I'd be very interested in seeing its insides, though I doubt that'd be an option, but I'm just wondering.

Answer 1

It is technically possible (although extremely difficult and costly) to retrieve Telstar 1 and it would have to be brought down in a shuttle or some sort of specialized recovery craft. If it were to re-enter earth's atmosphere by itself, the friction caused by air resistance would cause it to burn up and disintegrate.

Answer 2

Probably nobody'll go to the expense and trouble to recover poor old Telstar. It made a major splash when it went up. Even got immortalized with a nice piece of [what was then] innovative instrumental top ten: Telstar, The Ventures. It played constantly on the radio and jukeboxes for an awfully long while.



There might not be any other space artifact that ever got similarly honored.

Answer 3

no