US Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data

Are the satellites being turned off, or could people with SDRs pick this up directly from space and offer it up for free?

They're DoD satellites, so encryption is a real possibility.

Yes, many weather satellites broadcast in frequencies accessible to amateur SDR setups (137-138MHz for NOAA polar orbiting satellites), though military weather satellites like DMSP use different frequencies and encryption that make civilian reception significantly more challenging.

saveitforparts actively vlogs about the weather satellite sdr stuff. It's an interesting thing to learn about