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USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC
An anonymous reader writes "Amateur satellite watcher Ted Molczan notes that a "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAM) has been issued announcing restricted airspace for February 21, between 02:30 and 05:00 UTC, in a region near Hawaii. Stricken satellite USA 193, which the US has announced plans to shoot down, will pass over this area at about 03:30. Interestingly, this is during the totality of Wednesday's lunar eclipse, which may or may not make debris easier to observe."
Um, yeah, I'm sure nobody involved in the project has thought of that. They must have thought it would come falling down immediately, much like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. Why are you wasting time on Slashdot? You owe it to America to become a presidential adviser immediately, lest we be doomed to repeat the harsh lessons of Disney movies forever.
Nothing useful in terms of spy gear is going to make it through re-entry. What might make it through re-entry is a large, resilient fuel tank containing high-toxic, probably carcinogenic, fuel. You seriously think a government as naive as that of the United States - one that's spent a fortune on a war based on its own lies, that is uninterested in the health care of it's general population except as a brief distraction a couple summers ago (notice how they stopped talking about it), that refused to acknowledge any human contribution to global warming, that supports the storage of nuclear waste in it's own backyard - an administration that has spent the past six years using any opportunity for military posturing, unilateralism (unless multilateral means, "y'all do it our way") and the protection of "state secrets" by way of executive privilege - that has no fear of reprisal over the abuse of human rights or dignity, and has offered little excuse for the death of thousands both military and civilian - you actually think that government is afraid of a little hydrazine giving a few dozen people cancer?
Logic dictates that if there was really something classified on the satellite that they didn't want to survive re-entry they simply would have designed it to not survive re-entry or they would have installed a self-destruct. Shooting it down at this point for the reason you're implying doesn't make sense.
Besides, if it's the gear (rather than the fuel) that concerns them then why haven't they bothered shooting down other de-orbiting sats in the past? From the BBC:
An out-of-control [emphasis mine] US spy satellite - possibly the size of small bus - is believed to be plummeting out of its orbit and is expected to crash somewhere on the planet within weeks. ... Normally, when US spy satellites reach the end of their lives, they are disposed of through a controlled re-entry and dumped in the Pacific Ocean, so that no-one can learn their secrets. And finally, a few notes about hydrazine.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Gen. James Cartwright cast the threat from the satellite in much less dire terms. Even if the hydrazine were released, he noted, the effects would likely be mild -- akin to chlorine gas poisoning, which can cause burning in the lungs, and elsewhere. The area affected would be "roughly the size of two football fields [where you might] incur something that would make you go to the doctor." ... Especially when you consider that several other hydrazine-filled object have come crashing down to Earth. Not only did the space shuttle Columbia have a similar tank, which survived re-entry, with no toxic gas cloud. Several other hydrazine-laced objects have also crashed into the atmosphere, with no ill effects. Space researcher Ed Kyle notes that there were 42 major reentry objects for 2007, including 9 satellites -- at least one of which contained a form of hydrazine, UMDH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine). Look, I don't put it beyond the American government (and especially this American government) to spend "$60 million...to make sure that some fuel doesn't contaminate an acre or so of land" as the previous poster stated, but the notion that this is about contamination or saving lives (I'm trying to remember the last person known to die from falling spacing debris) is just bull.
Do You Experiment?
Occam's Razor, eh? Well, how about we shave even closer...
Something on that satellite is very important to keep secret (I doubt that it's the cameras themselves) and shooting down the satellite will keep secret whatever is on there.
There. Even simpler than the three-step hydrazine story. Now, the nature of what exactly needs to be kept secret is wide open for debate. Personally, given the trends in US government behavior the past several years, I wouldn't be surprised if it's some sort of treaty violating and/or constitutional rights abusive technology that would give rise to an enormous amount of domestic and international outrage (and embarrassment for the administration) if it were discovered.