An Air Force satellite exploded over the Earth and has sent 43 pieces of debris into separate orbits around the planet, adding to the more than 500,000 pieces of space junk currently tracked by NASA.
The weather monitoring satellite, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) launched in 1995, exploded in early February, according to reports. Scientists monitoring the satellite say that it probably didn’t collide with another piece of space debris, and they believe the explosion was likely caused by a power system failure.
“Basically, the spacecraft was 20 years old and experienced what appears to be a catastrophic event associated with a power system failure,” said Andy Roake, who is the head of the Current Operations Division at Air Force Space Command Public Affairs in Colorado Springs, in an interview with Space.com. Due to the age of the satellite, it means that it was no longer a critical component of the network.
