Ausrangierter militärischer Wettersatellit geht kaputt

“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.“

The GOES sats are part of this family and a couple of them have exploded as well.

Knowing that this has been an issue for two decades and supposedly wanting to increase commercial activity in space, they still haven’t put out to bid a mission to make these ticking time bombs safe.