How hackers recovered a dead satellite in space

After BEESAT-1 exhausted both redundant onboard computers due to mystery errors, a student theorized it was not permanent radiation damage but a software glitch that could be fixed.

The Mystery Behind a Dead Satellite in Space

First telemetry received in over 10 years!

After modifying an internal timing variable, the team sends a telecommand into orbit and successfully receives live telemetry from the satellite for the first time in over ten years.

Satellite Responds After 10 Years of Silence

How cascading bugs shrank satellite memory to 2KB

An engineer details the comical series of firmware bugs that repeatedly halved their available memory on an orbiting satellite from 8KB down to just 2KB.

When Bugs Shrink Your Spacecraft Memory

The speaker breaks down the math behind satellite telecommands, showing how 4-byte payloads and brief orbital windows drag out a 300KB upload over multiple weeks.

Why a 300KB Space Update Takes Two Weeks

The ultimate missing break statement bug in space

While investigating why a satellite camera unexpectedly powered on during a flash dump, the speaker discovers the root cause: an omitted break statement in a C switch block.

A Missing Break Statement in Space

Restoring a dead satellite after 10 years

A single telecommand rewrites corrupted parameter data, restoring full telemetry to the spacecraft for the first time in a decade.

Satellite Restored After Ten Years

He pressed download on a broken satellite camera.

After tracing communication packets to an orbital camera assumed to be dead, the speaker triggers a download command and unexpectedly receives a live picture from orbit.

Pressing Download on a Broken Satellite Camera

Taking a satellite photo of Germany in winter.

Attempting to capture a clear image of Hamburg from space, the speaker reveals the hilarious reality of European winter weather on a satellite camera.

Photographing Hamburg from Space Went Wrong

Does taking over a satellite make you a space pirate?

A moderator asks whether taking over an orbiting spacecraft classifies someone as a space pirate, prompting a funny debate on the technicalities of orbital ownership.

Hacking a Satellite: Are You a Space Pirate?

This single boolean error rebooted a real satellite in orbit.

The speaker reveals real embedded C code running on a satellite where an OR condition was written instead of an AND. This logical blunder caused the system to wait indefinitely during flash erasure timeouts, triggering the watchdog to reboot the spacecraft.

The One-Character Bug Resetting a Satellite

[03:04] The Mystery Behind a Dead Satellite in Space
[17:11] Satellite Responds After 10 Years of Silence
[22:57] When Bugs Shrink Your Spacecraft Memory
[27:49] Why a 300KB Space Update Takes Two Weeks
[32:55] A Missing Break Statement in Space
[34:01] Satellite Restored After Ten Years
[36:14] Pressing Download on a Broken Satellite Camera
[37:48] Photographing Hamburg from Space Went Wrong
[40:45] Hacking a Satellite: Are You a Space Pirate?
[46:26] The One-Character Bug Resetting a Satellite

How hackers recovered a dead satellite in space

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