Another US Satellite Just Broke in Space Orbit

A third US weather satellite, which was launched 20 years ago, has broken in orbit on Monday evening. It was the Joint Space Operations Center at the Vandenberg Air Force Base that revealed the destruction of the vehicle in space.

After the breakup of the long-retired Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 12 satellite (DMSP F-12), the air officials stated that an additional object was spotted near to the vehicle before its breakage. The vehicle consisted of the same battery which was utilized in the destruction of DMSP F-13 in February 2015.

Both the destructed satellites were built by Lockheed Martin and were launched with a gap of less than a year. According to the Space News, "DMSP F-13 suffered a breakage during its service and was broken apart into nearly 150 debris pieces." But DMSP F-12 was shut down in 2008 - a process which involves the burning of the satellite's remaining fuel, releasing the compressed gasses and discharging the battery.

As per a report published in Parallel State, the air force team revealed that they were still tracking one piece of debris associated with the breakup of DMSP F-12. When a DMSP satellite gets shut down at the end of its service, there is no guarantee that it won't suffer a catastrophic breakup. According to Space news, in 2013, a 13-year-old DMSP spacecraft was torn apart and produced nearly 56 pieces of debris even though it has been taken out of its service.

After the breakup of DMSP F-13 in February 2015, the officials of Air Force stated that a total of nine satellites launched between 1982 and 1997, all of which suffered a similar damage related to battery assembly. At that time, only seven were in orbit. With the breakup of DMSP F-12, the number reduced to six. Today only one survives - DMSP F-14.

It is difficult to determine the cause of DMSP F-12's damage since they have no telemetry from the satellite situated at a distance. The Air Force still has five DMSP in service. The oldest, DMSP F-14 was launched in 1997 whereas the youngest, DMSP F-18 was launched in 2009.