Chapter 4 – The Forgotten Child of the Sky

The satellite's carcass had not always travelled as a carcass. There was a time when it was hope – and a symbol.

Hope for state-of-the-art weather forecasting. The vision of computing with such numerical precision, so fast and so exact, that even the wingbeat of a butterfly in Buenos Aires could be factored into Offenbach's morning weather forecast. A symbol of what humanity could achieve when, for once, it wasn't preoccupied with itself.

For this satellite was not the work of a single country. It was a joint project. Built in quiet, almost hesitant cooperation by Russia, the USA, China, Europe – and yes, India and Africa got a say too. Under the waving flags of all nations, colourful as a rainbow, it was released into the sky. Back then, people stood shoulder to shoulder, smiled into cameras, spoke of "a new era of global cooperation".

But then happened what always happens: Somebody posted something. Somebody else said something about that somebody. A third party didn't like that, and a fourth got involved. Big headlines followed, first on social media, then in the newspapers, and eventually everyone involved ended up on talk shows. There they discussed not satellites, but what one person had said and another had not liked, and what a third thought about it.

And so the memory of the collective masterpiece faded. The satellite kept delivering data – far too much data for anyone to process in finite time. The numbers streamed down like rain that evaporates in the desert before it reaches the ground.

And so the former beacon of hope was forgotten. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it turned into what it was today: a carcass. A carcass, like the alliance that had once carried it into the sky with pride.