US To Shoot Down Dying Satellite

A user writes "US officials say that the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March. We discussed the device's decaying orbit late last month. The Associated Press has learned that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere. 'A key concern ... was the debris created by Chinese satellite's destruction -- and that will also be a focus now, as the U.S. determines exactly when and under what circumstances to shoot down its errant satellite. The military will have to choose a time and a location that will avoid to the greatest degree any damage to other satellites in the sky. Also, there is the possibility that large pieces could remain, and either stay in orbit where they can collide with other satellites or possibly fall to Earth.'"

Comments

For more information

[Anonymous Coward]

The NIMP.org site ran a quite detailed story on it recently.

WARNING: GNAA

[SirBudgington]

The link is a malicious one, it messes with the browser window. Basically just messes with your browser, most browsers, most OSs - don't click!

Re:WARNING: GNAA

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a plugin so you don't get caught by this kind of shit.

Chest thumping

[subl33t]

This is US chest-thumping in retaliation for the Chinese satellite that the Chinese shot down(up?).

Rather than let the thing burn up in the atmosphere they have to prove that they are willing and able to blow stuff up and leave earth orbit even more polluted.

Incompetent

[esocid]

The military will have to choose a time and a location that will avoid to the greatest degree any damage to other satellites in the sky.

Come again? They're just going to blow this thing to hell and hope that it doesn't break anything else up there? Nice planning.

The satellite is outfitted with thrusters -- small engines used to position it in space. They contain the toxic rocket fuel hydrazine, which can cause harm to anyone who contacts it.

Need I ask if this is going to rain into our atmosphere? Why not use those thrusters to drop it into the ocean at a planned location with the Navy there to pick it up on splashdown. The incompetency of the government never ceases to amaze me.

Re:Our secrets are worth more than your secrets!

[jeff419]

Yes, all we need is a world dictatorship to tell sovereign nations what they are permitted to do. Thanks for your insightful comment.

Re:Target practice or....?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me see this "end" of the atmosphere. Let me give you a hint, dumbfuck. It's already far enough into the atmosphere to *gasp* deorbit. Perhaps, they know more about space ops then you do (let me give you a hint, the answer is "yes") and only an idiot like you believes the conspiracy theories. Let's see, a satellite that's full of fuel (didn't even do it's positioning burn) and the best satellite technology we have, seems like it would be a bad thing to have fall into anybody's hands.

Hypocrites

[smitingpurpleemu]

When China does it, it means that we are evil and war-mongering. Now what do you have to say about the Americans doing the same thing? Just goes to show that the Cold War lives on.

Re:Target practice or....?

[ceroklis]

You are certainly an ass, but aren't so smart. In mathematics instead of using the words length for 1 dimension, area for 2, volume for 3, and having nothing for higher dimensions, the word volume is used in a generic manner for arbitrary dimensions.

Oh, and don't give me the woosh thing. There might have been an attempt at a joke but there was no joke. If jokes are supposed to be funny that is.