A 20-year-old US military satellite has exploded after experiencing a “sudden spike in temperature” while above the Earth, sending nearly 50 pieces of debris into the planet’s orbit.
SpaceNews reports that a “catastrophic event” has produced 43 pieces of space debris identified near the satellite’s last location, according to the US Air Force Space Command, though officials claimed that impact of the loss of the satellite itself was “minimal”.
The satellite apparently exploded after what the US Air Force described as a “sudden spike in temperature”.
The incident was first spotted by a senior research astrodynamicist, T.S. Keslo, who tweeted that there had been “another debris event with 26 pieces”. He believed the event had occurred around 3 February, which was later confirmed by the US Air Force.