Over on the USradioguy.com blog, we've seen news from Carl Reinmann noting that NOAA 15, 18, and 19 will be classed as end-of-life on June 16, 2025. These NOAA satellites are ones commonly used by RTL-SDR hobbyists to download weather satellite images, either via APT on 137 MHz with a V-dipole antenna, or via HRPT on 1.7 GHz with a tracking dish antenna.
Initially, it was thought that this meant that transmissions would cease. However, Carl Reinmann has now clarified with NOAA that transmissions of the APT and HRPT signals will continue as usual. Importantly, NOAA urges that these transmissions will only be "data of opportunity" and should no longer be used for operational purposes (not for anything safety-critical, for example). The transmissions will be fine for everyday hobbyist use.
However, this does mean that should the sensors on these satellites start failing, no attempt will be made to repair them from the ground, and in case of critical failures, the satellites will be decommissioned. In the past, we've seen NOAA 15's scan motor fail multiple times before coming back to life. It's not clear if the satellite received commands from the ground that helped recover it or if the motor just recovered by itself.
