The American military satellite exploded in the earth's orbit, after an inexplicable "sudden jump in temperature", as a result of which the satellite just fell apart.
The private satellite tracking site CelesTrak was the first to notice the explosion of the once secret meteorological satellite, and the US Air Force confirmed its disappearance, reports Blic.
The satellite is an older component of the US Armed Forces Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), which the country's military began developing in the 60s to help plan reconnaissance and espionage missions. Since 1972, the system is no longer secret and the data is available to civilian experts.
The lost satellite is the 13th to be launched as part of the DMSP. It was named DMSP-F13 and has been in Earth's orbit since 1995. It was four meters long, 1,2 meters wide and weighed about 800 kilograms.
The Space Command of the US Air Force confirmed to the website SpaceNews.com that the "catastrophic event" followed a "sudden sharp jump in temperature" and "irreparable loss of control over the position".
While deciding how to stabilize the spacecraft, they discovered a cloud of debris that indicated the satellite had been destroyed. At least 43 parts of the satellite, which is now being tracked by the US Air Force, were blown into orbit.
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