US Claims Satellite Shoot-Down Success

Readers of Slashdot last valentines day will remember discussing US Plans to Shoot down a damaged spy satellite. An anonymous reader noted that the US is reporting success last night, thus saving us from hydrazine exposure. Of course this makes me wonder- if it's this easy, wouldn't an international super power war pretty much immediately mean the downing of every satellite in orbit?

Comments

They need to be more careful.

[Rob T Firefly]

I took a look at the sky late last night, and it seems they took a chunk out of the Moon as well.

we know that they know that we know that ...

[mbaGeek]

the BBC talking heads (on the BBS world news this morning) were being generous when they said that there is "some discussion" about the United States' motives for the missile strike

three possibilities were given:

1. the US was showing that we have the ability to shoot down satellites (they described it as "shooting through the eye of a needle to hit the eye of a needle"),
2. we wanted to keep sensitive information out of the hands of our "opponents" (James Bond plot alert!), or
3. there might have actually been a health risk to letting the satellite reenter orbit (it should burn up now)

I'm going to choose all of the above! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Re:priorities?

[KnightNavro]

It's not actually compulsory for super-powers to go straight to the nuclear option on day 1. The nukes are typically reserved for the last day of war.

Re:in other news

[JamesP]

It wasn't an anti-satellite missile. It was an anti-missile missile [wikipedia.org],

I'm waiting for the anti-(anti-missile missile) missile

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not a rocket scientist and neither are you, but I have been told by a satellite guy that the hydrazine has to last for the entire duration of the satellite's mission, and so the tank is extremely well insulated. A satellite guy told me the same thing. I think he worked for DirecTV.

Re:in other news

[illumin8]

It wasn't an anti-satellite missile. It was an anti-missile missile, and it only worked because of the decayed orbit of the satellite. This missile would not be able to touch a "working" satellite.

I read a really funny line on DailyKos yesterday about this:

The US Navy announced that due to bad weather, it will postpone the attempt to shoot down the impaired satellite until tomorrow at the earliest. Our zillion dollar "star wars" technology is clearly capable of stopping incoming missiles so long as: they come one at a time, are the size of a school bus, travel in orbits that have been calculated for months, don't deploy any decoys, and the weather is clear.

Pinata

[jbeaupre]

We have just witnessed the worlds most expensive pinata. With no candy. Next time they need to just pay a few bucks at the mercado, invite a few kids, and do it right.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[cayenne8]

"Everyone involved who has no connection to the military has been very vocal about the fact its a government coverup and there was little to no danger at all."

Oh c'mon everyone...at the very worst, the hydrazine was just an excuse to do something very cool....shooting a missle to blow up a failing satellite. Cool stuff, and no one got hurt.

They needed to remind ME of that

[wsanders]

Screw China, I'm a US taxpayer and I need to be reminded that the insane amounts of money being spent away by the military are at least useful for SOMETHING.

As a matter of fact, I expect to see some damned fine shooting stars in the next few days, or I'll be asking for my money back.