Tag: DMSP
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U.S. Space Force Extends Aging Weather Satellites Through 2028 as New Military Weather Architecture Takes Shape
The U.S. Space Force will keep its aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft operating until at least 2028, extending the life of a satellite fleet that was originally designed for much shorter missions but remains important to military weather forecasting. The decision highlights a transitional period in U.S. military space weather: the Space Force…
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SpaceX launches Space Force weather satellite designed to take over for a program with roots to the 1960s
The Weather System Follow-on – Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle was successfully encapsulated April 8, 2024, ahead of its scheduled launch as the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., marking a major milestone on its upcoming launch into low Earth orbit. Image: SpaceX SpaceX launched a military weather satellite designed to…
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Air Force ends effort to recover DMSP weather satellite
Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: U.S. Air Force Attempts to restore the U.S. Air Force’s newest weather satellite to service have ended, a military spokesperson said Wednesday, cutting a planned five-year mission short less than two years after it launched. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 19, or DMSP F19, spacecraft…
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Engineers lose control of U.S. military weather satellite
Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: Lockheed Martin The U.S. Air Force has been unable to send commands to the service’s newest weather satellite for nearly a month, and engineers are trying to determine if the spacecraft can be salvaged, officials said last week. The polar-orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight…
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DMSP satellite’s break-up linked to battery failure
Artist’s concept of a DMSP satellite in orbit. Credit: U.S. Air Force Investigators have traced the cause of an in-space disintegration of a U.S. Air Force weather satellite in February to a battery fault and identified six other spacecraft in orbit prone to the same failure. Engineers originally suspected the polar-orbiting satellite’s power system was…
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DMSP satellite debris expected to remain in orbit for decades
This rendering shows the spreading of the DMSP F13 fragmentation cloud to form a band of debris. The debris is represented in exaggerated size. Credit: University of Southampton Satellite shards scattered by the explosion of an aging U.S. military weather spacecraft in February will remain in orbit for many decades, according to researchers who specialize…
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Power system failure likely cause of military satellite explosion
Artist’s concept of a DMSP weather satellite in orbit. Credit: U.S. Air Force The U.S. Air Force says a temperature spike in the power system of a nearly 20-year-old weather satellite may have led to the spacecraft’s explosion in orbit, scattering more than 40 fragments of debris that could be flying around Earth for decades.…