Being a zombie thread I feel obliged to be the first to say "MORE BRAINS".....There, I feel better now.
Now onto a mundane explanation/guess as to why said satellite is back from the dead.
One of the mars rovers did the same thing.
Turns out it suffered a main computer error and was rebooting itself constantly until the problem sorted itself out and then it started talking again.
Probably the same deal here, Solar flare wipes the main computer and the backup tries to reboot...for 9 months.
Glad I wasn't on a call routed through that satellite when it went pear shaped, nine months is a long time to be on hold.