http://spacenews.com/20-year-old-military-weather-satellite-apparently-exploded-in-orbit/
20-year-old Military Weather Satellite Apparently Exploded in Orbitby Brian
Berger and Mike Gruss — February 27, 2015
Defense Meteorological Satellite System (DMSP) spacecraft. Credit: U.S. Air
Force
WASHINGTON — A 20-year-old military weather satellite apparently
exploded in orbit Feb. 3 following what the U.S. Air Force described as a
sudden temperature spike.
The “catastrophic event” produced 43 pieces of space debris,
according to Air Force Space Command, which disclosed the loss of the
satellite Feb. 27 in response to questions from SpaceNews.
The satellite, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13,
was the oldest continuously operational satellite in the DMSP weather
constellation.
Launched in 1995, DMSP-F13 provided thousands of hours of weather
imagery to Air Force and Navy forecasters before transitioning to a
backup role in 2006. The Air Force said its sudden loss would have
minimal impact.
“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,” the Air Force said. “We anticipate real-time
weather data for tactical users will be slightly reduced without this
satellite, but its data was not being used for weather forecast
modeling.”
The Air Force still has six DMSP satellites in service following the
launch last April of DMSP-F19. A seventh satellite, DMSP-F20, was under
consideration for a 2016 launch as recently as November.
Air Force Space Command said DMSP-F13’s power subsystem experienced
“a sudden spike in temperature” followed by “an unrecoverable loss of
attitude control.” As DMSP operators were deciding to “render the
vehicle safe” the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force
Base, California, identified a debris field near the satellite.
The Air Force said it is continuing to track the debris and will issue
conjunction warnings if necessary.
“While the initial response is complete, JSpOC personnel will
continue to assess this event to learn more about what happened and what it
will mean for users within this orbit,” said Air Force Col. John
Giles, the Joint Space Operations Center’s director.
DMSP-F13 flew in a 800-kilometer sun-synchronous polar orbit popular for
weather and spy satellites.
The first public indication of a problem with DMSP-F13 came from T.S. Kelso, a
senior research astrodynamicist for Analytical Graphics’
Center for Space Standards and Innovation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who
noted Feb. 25 that there had been “another debris event with 26 new pieces” in
addition to five previously cataloged DMSP-F13 objects.
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