Somebody moved UK's oldest satellite, and no-one knows who or why

Russia or China, to test it.

My opinion.

The phrases "did us few favours" and "did us a few favours" are very different. Has to reread that part.

Maybe the UK said to move it 5,000 m(eters) and the US read it as 5,000 m(iles)?

It was the cleaner. They wanted to vacuum behind it.

I was reading up on the satellite hacking communities back in the 00's. 1969, that old stuff had only basic security if any at all. It's possible that anyone all the way down to an amateur might have commanded it to move.

From the description it sounds like it's orbit has become somewhat elliptical. If some state entity was trying to screw with it, they probably would have left it in more of a stable geosynchronous position. You don't have to move it far to make a point.

Seeing that it's dead and they're not likely to have logs from it, maybe it had a malfunction or a propellant leak.

The conspiracy would be Russia or China trojan horses putting a US friendly satellite above the US and have been using it to spy.

Though they keep saying it instead, so supposedly it doesn't have power to be running.

Which I'm not clear if it can move it with its own power still, or will have to wait until a space junk removal spaceship can move it.