RIP NOAA 17

As reported on space.com, the decommissioned US weather satellite NOAA 17 has broken up into at least 16 pieces. This is a similar fate to what happened to NOAA 16 in 2015.

NOAA 15 / 18 / 19 are still operating, with captures on the Polar Orbit captures page.

All three satellites are operating well over their design lifetime, with NOAA 15 having a few scares over recent years with problems with the image scanning functionality.

Sadly these are the last of the APT broadcasting satellites which can be easily received by amateurs using a Software Defined Radio (SDR) and a simple antenna, so we’re all hoping these veteran satellites keep going a bit longer.