Before Skynet became famous as the artificial intelligence-controlled military satellite system from the Terminator movies, it was a simple satellite launched by the UK military.

The satellite, with the full name of Skynet-1A, was launched in 1969 and put in orbit over the east coast of Africa. The goal was to monitor that region and send information back to the British armed forces.

About 18 months after the launch, it experienced hardware issues, and it was taken offline and left to orbit on its own. According to satellite-system engineer Dr Stewart Eves in a blog post:

“If Skynet-1A had failed at its operational location of around 40 East, we would now expect it to be oscillating by +/- 35 degrees either side of 75 East. Except that it isn’t. According to the UK Registry , Skynet-1A is currently sitting very close to the bottom of the other well at 105 West, oscillating by just a couple of degrees.”

This is well outside where it is expected to be.

Experts have a very good understanding of how things behave while in orbit around the Earth, which makes them very easy to predict. It is a relatively simple process of calculating the current location, the direction it is going in, the speed at which it is traveling, and how the gravity from the Earth, Moon, and Sun might impact it.

So, having a satellite that is well outside its intended location means that something unexpected happened. For it to be so far off its intended location, it almost certainly means that the satellite’s navigational systems moved it, but why?

The satellite belongs to the UK, but it was built by the USA, and the US also had its hand in controlling it, which adds some complexity to trying to track down when and why it went off course.

Rachel Hill is a PhD student from University College London, and she was trying to figure it out. She recently talked with the BBC about the mystery, saying:

“A Skynet team from Oakhanger would go to the USAF satellite facility in Sunnyvale (colloquially known as the Blue Cube) and operate Skynet during ‘Oakout’. This was when control was temporarily transferred to the US while Oakhanger was down for essential maintenance. Perhaps the move could have happened then?”

While this may certainly be the case, there is no proof of that.

In all likelihood, this satellite will continue to orbit in the unexpected location until its orbit eventually decays enough to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will hopefully burn up.

There is a chance, however, that in its unplanned orbit location, it could crash into other satellites or even have parts of the satellite survive the reentry process and crash into the ground below.

If this happens, it will be extremely important to understand why it went so off course so that the proper parties can be held accountable for any damage that is caused.

Also, confirming that it wasn’t a previously unknown AI system that redirected the satellite is undoubtedly important to a generation of Terminator fans.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.