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Writing to Salon, Holcomb cited historical archaeologist Pete Capelotti when the latter identified five categories of lunar artifacts: "lunar module ascent stages, lunar module descent stages, Saturn V third-stage rockets, subsatellite science probes, and lunar rovers."

The satellite launches were first reported by the website Space.com, which noted “it is possible that the object is a subsatellite, possibly to be used together with the parent satellite for on-orbit testing.”

A former subsatellite would help explain some of the mysteries of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons.

The subsatellite would have spiraled slowly away from Iapetus until Saturn grabbed it.

With the press of a button, the small, instrument-packed subsatellite will be automatically injected into an orbit around the moon.