An aging United States military weather satellite dubbed Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) exploded in orbit on February 3. The explosion occurred after the 20-year-old satellite experienced a sudden spike in temperature, producing at least 43 pieces of debris.
While not officially announced when it happened, the Air Force later confirmed the breakup, saying "while the initial response is complete, (Space Operations) personnel will continue to assess this event to learn more about what happened."
Investigators thus far have ruled out a collision with a piece of space junk or other external factors as the cause of the explosion. The US military believes the satellite experienced a catastrophic event with its systems resulting a major failure that then resulted in the explosion of the satellite.
"Basically, the spacecraft was 20 years old and experienced what appears to be a catastrophic event associated with a power system failure," chief of the Current Operations Division at Air Force Space Command Public Affairs in Colorado Springs, Andy Roake says.
According to investigators, the satellite's power subsystem experienced "a sudden spike in temperature" followed by "an unrecoverable loss of attitude control."
"Because this satellite was no longer used by the National Weather Service or the Air Force Weather Agency, the impact of the loss of this satellite is minimal."
Currently, the US Air Force has six DMSP satellites in service. This was not the first DMSP satellite to explode after years of reliable service. In April 2004, a 13-year-old satellite dubbed DMSP-F11 experienced a similar catastrophic breakup that produced 56 pieces of space debris. In this instance, the satellite was no longer operational when it exploded.
The DMSP-F13 satellite was originally launched in 1995 and occupied a sun-synchronous polar orbit approximately 800 km above Earth. In 2006, the Air Force transitioned the satellite into a backup role. Since that time, the satellite has continued to collect data but is no longer involved in weather forecast modeling.
This latest explosion only adds to the growing problem of space junk orbiting the Earth. Currently, NASA estimates that there are 20,000 pieces of junk larger than a softball. Each of these pieces of junk must be carefully mapped and tracked. Anything that enters or leaves the Earth's atmosphere must avoid these pieces of junk in order to ensure a successful mission.
