The Black Knight Satellite: Alien Watcher or Orbital Deception?

For decades, a strange story has orbited our world—literally. According to conspiracy theorists, there’s a mysterious object circling Earth, not launched by any government, and possibly not of this world. They call it the Black Knight Satellite.

It’s a tale made of fragments: strange signals, Cold War panic, blurry space photos, and deep internet rabbit holes. On this episode of This Podcast is a Secret, we chase the myth through history, science, and fringe theories to figure out whether the Black Knight is real—or just another example of how badly humans want to believe.

It All Starts With Tesla

In 1899, Nikola Tesla was in Colorado Springs, experimenting with wireless transmission. One night, he claimed to receive strange, repeating signals he believed were coming from space—possibly even from intelligent life.

Then in 1927, Norwegian engineer Jørgen Hals reported long-delayed radio echoes—signals that bounced back seconds later for no known reason. While scientists struggled to explain these phenomena, UFO enthusiasts started to wonder: what if something in orbit was bouncing signals back at us?

Decades later, believers would point to these early reports as evidence that something had been circling Earth for much longer than we realized.

The 1950s: A Satellite Before Satellites

In 1954—three years before Sputnik—UFO researcher and former U.S. Navy pilot Donald Keyhoe claimed the Air Force had detected two unknown satellites orbiting Earth. It was published in major newspapers, and despite denials from the military, the idea stuck.

Fast forward to 1960. Time Magazine reported on a dark object in orbit, initially believed to be a Soviet satellite. Later, it was identified as a lost U.S. Air Force Discoverer capsule. But the headlines fueled speculation that something else might be lurking in low Earth orbit—watching.

The 1998 NASA Photo That Ignited a Movement

In December 1998, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour were on mission STS-88, helping build the International Space Station. During a spacewalk, they photographed an unusual object: black, oddly shaped, and seemingly tumbling through orbit.

NASA identified it as a thermal blanket that had accidentally drifted away. But the internet had already taken hold of the photos. UFO sites lit up. The "Black Knight" now had a face—a shadowy, asymmetrical figure suspended above Earth.

To believers, this wasn’t space junk. It was proof of something ancient and intelligent, watching silently from the sky.

The 13,000-Year Theory

Where did the idea that it’s 13,000 years old come from?

In 1973, Scottish science writer Duncan Lunan tried to decode the long-delayed echoes reported by Jørgen Hals. He believed the data formed a message from a probe orbiting the Moon, sent by aliens near the star Epsilon Boötis. The math was speculative, and Lunan later walked it back—but the 13,000-year figure became a permanent part of the myth.

It was the perfect number. Old enough to be mysterious. Recent enough to hint at forgotten civilizations.

Skeptics Weigh In

From a mainstream perspective, there’s no mystery. Scientists say Tesla likely picked up natural radio interference, and Hals’s echoes remain odd but not supernatural.

The supposed 1950s satellites? Most were misunderstandings, misidentified debris, or Cold War fearmongering. And the 1998 NASA photos? Easily explained by space junk.

There’s no repeatable data. No object tracked long-term. No records from NORAD, NASA, or other space agencies confirming any rogue satellite that matches the Black Knight’s description.

But that doesn’t stop the legend. Because like all good conspiracy theories, it resists closure.

Fringe Theories: The Deeper You Go

This is where things get weird.

Some claim the Black Knight is a Bracewell probe—a self-replicating alien intelligence designed to monitor developing civilizations.

Others believe it’s a simulation glitch—a visible flaw in the code of our artificial universe.

More radical voices tie it to mind control, alleging it relays low-frequency signals to influence humanity. Still others think it’s a sentinel left by Atlantis, an ancient orbital device built by a lost civilization.

Some occult theorists even link it to the Book of Enoch, suggesting it’s a prison for fallen angels, forever circling Earth.

To them, it’s not just hardware—it’s mythology in orbit.

So... What Is the Black Knight?

Maybe it’s nothing more than a burned-up blanket and some wishful thinking. Maybe it’s a psychic echo of our need to find meaning in shadows. Or maybe, just maybe, something old and silent is up there—watching, waiting, or warning.

What we do know is this: the Black Knight Satellite isn’t going away. It’s part of our cultural sky now, drifting between fact and fiction.

And if it is a visitor? It’s the quietest one we’ve ever had.

Thanks for listening, but remember—don’t tell anyone about what you heard today, because this podcast is a secret.