Military satellite disintegration adds to the space debris crisis
830 kilometres above Earth, a catastrophe occurred as reported by the United States Space Force. The military weather satellite DMSP-5D2 F14 broke apart, littering our planet's orbit with dozens of debris fragments.
The incident was recorded on December 18 at 8:00 AM ET by both USSF (United States Space Force) and private entities like LeoLabs and Slingshot Aerospace. Although reports on the exact time of the orbital catastrophe vary, its source is undisputed.
The source is the American military weather satellite DMSP-5D2 F14—an object weighing around 725 kg, which disintegrated into an unidentified number of pieces. Reports cited by Defence24 from LeoLabs mention a "low-velocity fragmentation," resulting in over 50 pieces of space debris.
DMSP-5D2 F14 satellite
The DMSP-5D2 F14 satellite is a remnant of the military, initially secret, space program Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), launched in the 1960s.
It was an alternative program for building a space network of weather satellites, operating in sun-synchronous orbits, with a purpose similar to a civilian initiative. Their task was to provide weather information essential for conducting military operations.
Military weather program
Data provided by the DMSP satellites, originally intended solely for the military, has been made available to research institutions since 1972, and in the 1990s, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) took over supervision of the satellite constellation.
In 2015, the U.S. Congress voted to officially discontinue the DMSP constellation, simultaneously requiring the military to utilize more modern solutions. The DMSP-5D2 F14 satellite, placed in orbit in 1997, was deactivated in 2020, but its disintegration was not planned.
