Sebastian wrote:
What makes AO-7 so special?
We're all sentimental.
Why is it that we lost AO-10, AO-13 and
all the others in the past several years, yet this one is still working?
Different faults have different characteristics. This one lost it's battery which is now open circuit allowing the satellite to operate from solar cells when it's in sunlight.
I know the batteries are dead, but I'm primarily interested
in how this bird is able to stay in it's orbit for over 30 years? And if it's orbit is decaying, how is it that it has apparently decayed so slowly?
Most of the dead sats are still in orbit and being tracked. It's in a higher orbit than most amateur sats and, like all the others in a similar orbit, will take many tens of years to re-enter.
I was under the impression that unless a satellite is occasionally 'boosted', it will eventually re-enter?
Yes, but the higher the orbit, the longer will be "eventually"
I somehow doubt AO-7 has any
fuel left in it's boosters; if it had any.
AO7, like most amateur satellites, never had any boosters.