The U.S. Air Force has attributed the loss of a Lockheed Martin-built weather satellite to a power failure in the spacecraft’s command-and-control subsystem, Space News reported Monday.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flight team lost control of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight-19 satellite on Feb. 11 but has continued to receive weather and telemetry data, Mike Gruss writes.
The service branch launched the DMSP-F19 satellite in April 2014 in an effort to help forecast hurricanes, thunderstorms and other weather patterns that could affect military missions, according to the report.
“The satellite is not repairable and no further action will be taken to recover it,†the military branch said in a press release.
The Air Force decided to redesignate DMSP Flight 17Â satellite from a backup status to a primary satellite in February as a result of the power failure, Gruss reports.
“We fully supported the Air Force’s efforts to review the anomaly experienced by DMSP-19 and continue to provide ongoing sustainment and operations for the constellation,†Lauren Fair, a spokeswoman for Lockheed, told Space News.
