USA 32 broke up on September 13, 2026
Published by the breakups project on Sep 15, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC, confirmed on September 17, 2026 by its pieces (13).
Download the figures (PNG)Height chartOrbit at the time shownPieces’ spread
In the news: A 38-year-old US spy satellite breaks apart in orbit
Mean altitude of every set of elements, August 29, 2026 to September 28, 2026
One dot per set · 110 setsMean altitude from the mean motion of each set of elements Space-Track published for USA 32 (19460). The band is the time shown.
Where it was at 9:13 PM UTC
The orbit USA 32 was on at the time shown: one orbit from its last set of elements before the event (grey) and one from its first set after it (red). The point is where the set before put it then, 792 km up. Follow it on the live map now. The live map plays back the past 7 days, so this instant is beyond it.
The parent and its pieces
- Body
- USA 32, 19460
- International designator
- 1988-078A
- Class
- Payload
- Launched
- September 5, 1988
- Mass
- 1,450 kg
- Orbit
- 770 km to 776 km up, one orbit every 100.4 min
The detector counted 13 pieces of it.
See them
- 1988-078D, USA 32 DEB (101033)
- 1988-078F, USA 32 DEB (101035)
- 1988-078K, USA 32 DEB (101039)
- 1988-078P, USA 32 DEB (101043)
- 1988-078R, USA 32 DEB (101045)
- 1988-078V, USA 32 DEB (101049)
- 1988-078C, USA 32 DEB (101032)
- 1988-078E, USA 32 DEB (101034)
- 1988-078G, USA 32 DEB (101036)
- 1988-078L, USA 32 DEB (101040)
- 1988-078Q, USA 32 DEB (101044)
- 1988-078S, USA 32 DEB (101046)
- 1988-078U, USA 32 DEB (101048)
Masses: data from J. McDowell, planet4589.org, licensed CC BY 4.0
How far its pieces have spread
13 pieces placed by their elements- Highest point of a piece’s orbit (apogee)
- Lowest point (perigee)
Each piece the detector counted, by the time it takes to go round and the highest and lowest points of its orbit, from its latest elements on Space-Track. A piece kicked forward flies higher and slower; one kicked back, lower and faster. The ring is USA 32 and the dashed line its period: how far the pieces spread either side of it says how violent the event was.
Why it is shown
- What the detector saw: no step in the parent’s own orbit; it found the breakup from its pieces.
- How it was confirmed: by 13 pieces catalogued in the parent’s orbital plane.
- The time shown: September 13, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC ± 10 min, reported by the US Space Force’s notice (S4S).
- The detector’s own estimate: between May 16, 2026, 4:52 AM and May 20, 2026, 3:53 PM UTC.
Reported by:
- the US Space Force’s notice (S4S), September 17, 2026
The detector’s own reasons, as it wrote them:
- 13 fresh pieces under launch 1988-078 (101033, 101035, 101039, 101043, 101045, 101049, 101032, 101034, 101036, 101040, 101044, 101046, 101048), numbered above the catalogue's mark and first published after the cloud's first set, in the plane of 19460 (distance 0.0, 0.3, 2.5, 0.3, 0.3, 0.2, 0.0, 0.1, 0.7, 1.9, 0.3, 0.6, 0.1 to the nearest plane of the launch's bodies), their semi-major axes centred 1.0 km from its, moving 13.4 m/s from it: a breakup of 19460, attributed from the pieces with no step seen on it
- propagated back, 7 pieces converge on 19460 at 2026-09-01 07:06, sigma 2133 min, missing it by 6044.0 km; each piece's closest approach to 19460: 7 of 8 cross it in the window, their median at 2026-05-18 10:23, half of them within 38.1 h of it and three quarters within 280.2 h (robust spread 56.5 h), the pieces 147.9 days old at it
- 13 new bodies under 1988-078 in 14 days against a background of 0.50 (0 in the year before): Poisson tail 1.3e-14, a burst
- 13 pieces in the plane of parent 19460 (distance under 3), moving 13.4 m/s, the semi-major axes spread over 158.2 km
Source: Orbinauts.com, orbits from Space-Track. Breakups and their evidence from the open-source breakups detector; each time is credited to whoever dated it.
Its pieces in the catalogue
13 pieces of 1988-078 the detector counted, as Space-Track lists them now.
| International designator | Name in the catalogue | Catalogue number |
|---|---|---|
| 1988-078D | USA 32 DEB | 101033 |
| 1988-078F | USA 32 DEB | 101035 |
| 1988-078K | USA 32 DEB | 101039 |
| 1988-078P | USA 32 DEB | 101043 |
| 1988-078R | USA 32 DEB | 101045 |
| 1988-078V | USA 32 DEB | 101049 |
| 1988-078C | USA 32 DEB | 101032 |
| 1988-078E | USA 32 DEB | 101034 |
| 1988-078G | USA 32 DEB | 101036 |
| 1988-078L | USA 32 DEB | 101040 |
| 1988-078Q | USA 32 DEB | 101044 |
| 1988-078S | USA 32 DEB | 101046 |
| 1988-078U | USA 32 DEB | 101048 |