DMSP – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launches Space Force weather satellite designed to take over for a program with roots to the 1960s

April 11, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The USSF-62 mission will feature the first National Security Space Launch mission using flight-proven payload fairings. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:25 a.m. PDT (10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 UTC).

Air Force ends effort to recover DMSP weather satellite

March 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

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.

Engineers lose control of U.S. military weather satellite

March 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

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.

DMSP satellite’s break-up linked to battery failure

July 24, 2015 Stephen Clark

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.

DMSP satellite debris expected to remain in orbit for decades

May 13, 2015 Stephen Clark

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 in space debris.

Power system failure likely cause of military satellite explosion

March 4, 2015 Stephen Clark

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.