The Satellite of Love is the Earth-orbiting ship created by
Dr. Clayton Forrester to keep
Joel Robinson (and later,
Mike Nelson) marooned in space on TV's
Mystery Science Theater 3000. The ship was launched prior to the first episode of the series (although its launch can be seen during the opening theme song montage of the first five seasons of the series). During
the KTMA season of the series the ship was shaped like a gyroscopic-looking object, but beginning with Season 1 the ship became a
dog bone-type shape (this has something to do with an early gag in which space demon dogs attack the ship). We viewers haven't seen much of the satellite, but we do know that it contains the following sections:
The satellite orbited Earth for the first seven years of the series until Dr. Forrester cut it loose from orbit in episode #706, Laserblast, with the intent that it drift into the atmosphere and burn up. Instead the crew gained access to the rocket thrusters and sent the ship hurtling into space where it drifted through the cosmos for one thousand years. Eventually it drifted back to an Earth orbit where the crew found that a race of super intelligent apes had risen to power. After orbiting Earth for four episodes the nanites aboard the ship repaired the damaged thrusters and Mike was able to steer the ship away from the planet just before it exploded. The ship went on to encounter other planets during Season 8, such as the Observers planet, the Camping Planet, and Ancient Rome thanks to a wormhole that sent the crew back in time. Our heroes escaped Rome at the end of the episode #820, Space Mutiny, and spent the rest of Season 8 just drifting through space with no certain destination. Season 9 found another wormhole dragging the crew back to modern day Earth into a orbit over Castle Forrester, the ancestral home of Pearl Forrester's family. Episode #1001, Soultaker, found the ship undergoing a series of malfunctions that were found to be caused by sabotage left behind by Dr. Forrester. Joel Robinson returned and repaired the damage. The ship remained in Earth orbit until episode #1013, Diabolik, when the satellite finally crashed to Earth and was destroyed during the descent thanks to Pearl losing control of the ship. Luckily the crew walked away safely and went on to live productive(?) lives on Earth.