WASHINGTON: Though investigators continue to study the explosion of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13), NBC news reports that all signs show point to, not a collision with a piece of space junk or any other external cause, but rather to an issue on board the spacecraft itself.
DMSP-F13 first launched in 1995, and had been in space for 20 long years. That amount of time can put a lot of stress on a satellite, and explains how the total system failure happened, and why it led to the destruction of the craft.
The whole explosion was preceded by a sudden spike in the system’s temperature, which was quickly followed by a total loss of altitude control.Both of these were caused by the system failure, and investigators believe that the failure by itself probably blew apart DMSP-F13. While in space, the satellite occupied a sun-synchronous polar orbit about 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth, and generating the cloud of debris that the Air Force’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) has detected near the satellite. So far, 43 pieces of debris from the blast have been discovered.
As it was a military satellite, DMSP-F13 was important to many military operations, including help in the effort overseas. Losing this satellite is a setback for such military operations, but can and will be replaced. Last year, the aged satellite completed 100,000 orbits around the earth before experiencing its total system failure. A large number for any spacecraft, and no wonder that it finally broke down when it did.
