Air Force Weather Satellite’s Breakup Blamed on Wiring Harness Compression in Battery Charge Assembly

DMSP Air Force weather satellite is depicted in polar orbit near Alaska. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

A U.S. Air Force review into the Feb. 3 loss of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Flight 13 determined a failure of the spacecraft’s battery charger as the likely cause of the satellite’s failure and structural breakup.

Analysis [...]