US Plan To Shoot satellite Down

[fish5133]

The Pentagon plans to shoot down a disabled US spy satellite before it enters the Earth's atmosphere, to prevent loss of life.

President Bush has given the Navy the go-ahead to strike the 5,000-pound (2,270 kg) satellite with a modified tactical missile.

Security advisers to the President suggested its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere could result in a potentially deadly leak of toxic gas from the vehicle's fuel tank.


http://www.orange.co.uk/news/topstories/5964.htm?linkfrom=feed_newsand weather&link=link_1&article=index

[paul wright]

Probably rather more that its nuclear-fuelled power cells would distribute plutonium particles around the atmosphere and kill the majority of the world's populace stone dead through cancer within 10 years.
Um, but that's what they want isn't it?

[landless peasant]

[mark_e]

how else do you test anti-satellite weapons? someone would be bound to notice the explosion if they weren't first told what it is. must be some interesting technology on that sat for them to go to these lengths

[karlos]

China and Russia have already tested and used anti satelite missiles.
Meaning that Americas satelites are all vulnerable from attack and all it's GPS reliant systems are now obselete. As will be the UK's new £75 Billion Trident.
I dont know what the US is planning with this satelite but i tend to agree that something very nasty is about to happen.
They could ask the Chinese to blow it up out in space but obviously that is not the mission plan.

[fish5133]

US trying for Full Spectrum Domination (including space). Maybe this is an opportunity to flex its muscles to the other super powers. Sounds very suspicious or a rather dodgy exercise. Would have thought they would have built in some kind of self destruct mechanism.
Will give the reptilien alien believers something to think about--missiles being shot into their domain.

[wepmob2000]

[paul wright]

[karlos]

Russia has called the US plans to shoot down a damaged spy satellite carrying toxic fuel a cover for testing an anti-satellite weapon.

Russia's Defense Ministry on Saturday accused the US military of failing to provide enough information to back its plan to smash the satellite next week with a missile so other countries could assess possible dangers.

It also said that the US aims to test its "anti-missile defense system's capability to destroy other countries' satellites" and such testing essentially means the creation of a new type of strategic weapons.

The US said last week that it would use a missile to destroy the satellite, to stop it from crash landing.

But Russia has argued that various countries' spacecraft had crashed to Earth in the past, and many countries used toxic fuel in spacecraft, but this had never before merited such "extraordinary measures".

United States is going to shoot down the satellite next week while it strongly criticized China last year for testing a missile specifically designed to take out satellites and accused the country of testing an anti-satellite weapon.

[WyldeChylde]

Did anyone hear where this landed? I havent' heard anything since it was on the news

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Chinese worried

Russians worried

New Scientist worried


Link


US missile hits spy satellite
11:41 21 February 2008
NewScientist.com news service
New Scientist staff and Reuters
A missile fired by a US Navy warship has hit the defunct US spy satellite that was slowly falling to Earth, the Pentagon says. USS Lake Erie fired the missile from the Pacific at about 0326 GMT Thursday (10:26 p.m. EST Wednesday). It had been feared that rough seas would thwart the mission.
The modified SM-3 ballistic missile was fired in an attempt to destroy the satellite's fuel tank. The Pentagon feared that toxic hydrazine inside could be hazardous to human health if the out-of-control satellite, USA 193, fell to Earth.
The Pentagon said it was too soon to know if the tank had been destroyed, but that it would become clear within 24 hours of the launch. A senior military source said that the missile hit the satellite 3 minutes after launch, causing an explosion that probably destroyed the fuel tank.
International concernRussia and China have expressed concern, with Moscow suggesting the operation could be used as cover to test a new space weapon.
A Chinese state newspaper on Thursday accused Washington of hypocrisy for criticising other countries' space ambitions while rejecting a treaty proposed by China and Russia to ban weapons in space and firing the missile at the satellite.
"The Chinese side is continuing to closely follow the US action, which may influence the security of outer space and may harm other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.
Space junkThe missile hit the 2270 kg (5000 lb), bus-sized satellite as it travelled through space at more than 27,400 kph (17,000 mph), the Pentagon said. "Due to the relatively low altitude of the satellite at the time of the engagement, debris will begin to re-enter the earth's atmosphere immediately," it added. "Nearly all of the debris will burn up on reentry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days."Some space experts have questioned the Pentagon's justification for the mission, saying the chances of any part of the satellite causing harm were extremely remote. But Pentagon officials denied suggestions they wanted to destroy the satellite to prevent part of the classified spacecraft from falling into non-US hands.
They also reject accusations from security and space experts that the satellite problem was used as an excuse to test the Pentagon's ability to hit targets in space after an anti-satellite test by China in January 2007 that destroyed an obsolete weather satellite.
US defence officials say their case is different because Washington, unlike Beijing, informed the public and world leaders before shooting the missile. They insisted their only motivation was that the 450 kg (1000 lb) fuel tank could survive largely intact and release toxic gas.
The Pentagon operation used elements of its controversial missile defence system. But officials said that the mission is not a test for the system, adding that hitting a satellite is different from trying to shoot down a missile.
USA 193 was in a decaying orbit 247 km above the Earth. Launched in December 2006 for the National Reconnaissance Office, it stopped communicating within a few hours of reaching orbit.


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