Defunct Pentagon weather satellite breaks up
According to the Space Force as well as two commercial space tracking companies, a defunct military weather satellite launched in 1997 has broken up into more than fifty pieces.
The satellite, dubbed DMSP-5D2 F14, was in a sun-synchronous orbit over the poles. What makes the break-up significant is that it is not the first of this design of weather satellites to do so.
DMSP-5D2 F14 is part of a family of spacecraft that have suffered breakups in orbit. The F12 satellite broke up in October 2016, following the breakup of F13 in February 2015. In 2004, the F11 spacecraft broke up, creating 56 pieces of tracked debris. All the satellites had a battery assembly with a design flaw that made them vulnerable to explosion.
A similar spacecraft design was used for a line of civilian polar-orbiting weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA-16 satellite broke up in November 2015, followed by NOAA-17 in March 2021.
Overall the military launched nine satellites of this design, while NOAA launched three. Of these twelve satellites six have now broken apart. We should expect a large percentage of the remaining six to also break up.
This story explains why in the last ten years a number of companies have appeared attempting to develop the technology to remove space junk. There is a desperate need in the satellite industry for this capability, and those space junk companies are aiming to make profit from this need.
Note I do not expect or want the government to take the lead in this. This issue is mostly a need of the satellite industry, of which the world’s governments are merely just one more participant. This industry should band together to set up a fund to pay for this work, with those governments joining as just one more partner.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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According to the Space Force as well as two commercial space tracking companies, a defunct military weather satellite launched in 1997 has broken up into more than fifty pieces.
The satellite, dubbed DMSP-5D2 F14, was in a sun-synchronous orbit over the poles. What makes the break-up significant is that it is not the first of this design of weather satellites to do so.
DMSP-5D2 F14 is part of a family of spacecraft that have suffered breakups in orbit. The F12 satellite broke up in October 2016, following the breakup of F13 in February 2015. In 2004, the F11 spacecraft broke up, creating 56 pieces of tracked debris. All the satellites had a battery assembly with a design flaw that made them vulnerable to explosion.
A similar spacecraft design was used for a line of civilian polar-orbiting weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA-16 satellite broke up in November 2015, followed by NOAA-17 in March 2021.
Overall the military launched nine satellites of this design, while NOAA launched three. Of these twelve satellites six have now broken apart. We should expect a large percentage of the remaining six to also break up.
This story explains why in the last ten years a number of companies have appeared attempting to develop the technology to remove space junk. There is a desperate need in the satellite industry for this capability, and those space junk companies are aiming to make profit from this need.
Note I do not expect or want the government to take the lead in this. This issue is mostly a need of the satellite industry, of which the world’s governments are merely just one more participant. This industry should band together to set up a fund to pay for this work, with those governments joining as just one more partner.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Mr Zimmerman:
I still believe that this is a great opportunity for free-market enterprise in space. A simple brute-force “tug” could be put in orbit, with large grapples and some big thrusters for the sole purpose of changing the orbits of these pieces of junk, and then return back to it’s own orbit. It would almost have to be manned, given the difficulty of matching orbits and spin with the debris, but having it’s own docking station, routinely re-supplied with fuel and consumables, is not beyond reach.
The bigger question is who would pay for the re-entry destruction of defunct satellites; probably either the owners (if private) or launchers (if state-owned).
Blackwing1: From my post:
This had been the traditional way things were done in America before World War II. The government might have been a player, but the private sector led and did not want that government to play a large part.
We have to get back to that mindset.
Space launch was an infrequent thing, each a one-off.
The good and bad about hypergolics—they can last a long time up there.
SpaceX ISS deorbit tug could be the design to handle other such space junk.
The hypergolics should allow it a long time to fulfill its mission—de-orbiting itself and its final target end of life.
Blackwing1,
Putting aside the non-trivial matter of who will pay to do orbital garbage collection, there is no need for human crew in the loop. That would radically increase the minimum cost of the vehicles required for no functional gain. It would also require incurring the ongoing expense of supplying crews and rotating them periodically. In essence, human-crewed debris-chasing vehicles would be small space stations that would also do a bit of trash pickup as a sideline. The tail would wag the dog.
Current AI tech is more than adequate to enable an entirely autonomous space tug with manipulator arms to close with and grapple uncooperative bits of orbital detritus.
The best orbits in which to both test, then operationally deploy, such technology are the sun-synchronous ones. Not only are most of the problematical DoD and NOAA weathersats in such orbits but so are a very high percentage of dead cubesats and other smallsats that were deployed there by rideshare missions – particularly SpaceX’s Transporter series. Many companies use these missions to try out new technology and the items deployed display a fairly high rate of stillbirth and infant mortality. That makes the sun-synchronous orbits target-rich environments for debris removal.
There are a number of such orbits that all have nearly the same inclinations and differ mainly in altitude. It’s a much less energy-intensive job to significantly change the altitude of an orbiting object – like a debris-hunting tug – than it is to significantly change its orbital inclination.
To minimize total delta-V change requirements still further, it might make sense to deploy multiple debris-chasing tugs – each at a different sun-synchronous orbital altitude. One could also deploy one or more propellant depots at each altitude to service the tug or tugs operating there.
To take down drones in one piece, they have a rocket with a netting package. (Parachute optional)
A simple system can be modified for space, it’ll need a better guidance system with gyros.
Launch a platform in high orbit with 10 to 20 guided missiles a board. Sooner or later, all satellites will pass beneath it that are not geosynchronous.
When the target passes beneath the platform, launch controlled missile to match orbit and speed with a proximity detector timed just before soft Impact to wrap up the satellite. Allow Gyro package slow rotation to get orientation correct, then fire the remaining fuel to deorbit the package at the correct time over the proper ocean.
Not fancy, but practical and doable for problem satellites. Smaller versions for sweeping debris/chunks out of the sky may also work. (Picture a large chunk of foam adjusting attitude and direction on a collision course with smaller pieces as it slowly falls out of orbit.)
Space laser, mounted to platform, can deorbit the smallest pieces. (firing only over water of course)
I notice that Space News makes no mention of the manufacturer of the DMSP and NOAA weather satellites that have a tendency to break apart: Lockheed Martin. They pulled no such punches recently when the Boeing-built Intelsat Epic satellite broke apart in October.
Similarly a few years ago both Boeing and Lockheed had satellites fail on-orbit due to the failure of a part by a subcontractor. The article announcing the failure of the Boeing satellite had Boeing’s name all over it but not the name of the subcontractor. Contrast that to the Space News article announcing the failure of the Lockheed-built GOES Next satellite, which mentioned only the subcontractor but not Lockheed.
It’s not just the mainstream media that is lopsidedly biased.