That’s irrelevant. You question has been answered.
Yes, you still own the balloon and transmitter. These types of things happen all the time. It is extremely common. It is no different than if you’re playing baseball and someone hits the ball over a neighbor’s fence. One of two things happen: a) the neighbor retrieves the ball and gives it to you, or b) the neighbor gives you permission to enter his/her property to retrieve it yourself. What the owner cannot do is claim, “my yard, my ball!”
I don’t see any meaningful difference between a satellite placed in orbit and, say, an autonomous oceanic buoy, or a weather balloon, or a piece of traffic monitoring equipment tethered to a lamp post, or a wildlife surveying camera tied to a tree in the woods.
Abandoned property isn’t just something you put somewhere - it has to be put there with no intent to return for it or continue owning it.
Wikipedia on Abandoned property (legal):
A satellite placed in orbit likely can’t be retrieved - no owner is “returning to claim it.” It can be de-orbited to burn up in the atmosphere but what good is it then? Earthly laws may proclaim orbital junk to belong to some entity, maybe whatever jurisdiction its debris lands in, but if nobody can grasp it in orbit, whose is it really? Those rascals at the secret Nazi lunar bases can grab anything and what can Captain America do?
If you’re positing secret Moon Nazi space thieves, then you might as well also posit secret superhero space law enforcement with access to the same technology. Or if it’s only the Moon Nazis who have that technology, then they’d be able to steal whatever they want from the surface of the planet, too.
If you’re positing secret Moon Nazi space thieves, then you might as well also posit secret superhero space law enforcement with access to the same technology. Or if it’s only the Moon Nazis who have that technology, then they’d be able to steal whatever they want from the surface of the planet, too.
The key phrase in the abandoned property common law is, I think “but is in such a condition that it is apparent that he or she has no intention of returning to claim it.”
Satellites in orbit are not abandoned - they are still in use.
The difficulty of reaching the thing due to its placement seems like a red herring to me.
If the owner of the satellite closes their ground-based mission and loses interest in its continued function, it could be argued to be abandoned, I guess.
Abandonment has context. If you spot a pair of broken roller skates on the ground you have some reason to think they are abandoned. If you spot a pile of money on the ground you are required to notify the authorities because it is not reasonable to assume people abandon piles of money. Neither may you assume a car parked on the side of the road has been abandoned.
Ownership rights of space debris must be explicitly forfeited. All the space debris drifting around up there belongs to the original owners unless and until they claim it doesn’t. Nobody needs to claim ownership. Ownership is automatic. It’s “nonownership” that would have to be claimed.
The answer is obvious if you think in terms of communications satellites and the companies that own and operate them and sell telecommunications bandwidth, or if you think of something like direct-to-home satellite TV services. These are major company assets and typically represent their biggest investments. Back when I subscribed to a direct-to-home satellite TV service, the big news was that they were putting up an additional satellite that would become the primary one, with more channels and a stronger signal, and the other one would be moved to a different geosynchronous location. I don’t remember the cost that was mentioned for the build and launch, but it was staggering – I think well over $500 million. I’m pretty sure they would have a problem with someone claiming they could take it for free, or use it for their own purposes! That’s why some of the laws and principles mentioned apply.