Slashdot Mirror
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?
Its been pretty much confirmed by everyone, the hazards of the fuel where nil. This was all a dickwaving scheme by the military who not too long ago was up in arms over China doing the EXACT same thing but being upfront about it being a test and not using a falling sat as a scheme to show off.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
When everyone can destroy satellites, why should the US allied sats survive ?
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.
Because frankly given a choice between China running over the world or the US I would much prefer the latter. The way the world bends over backward for China; forced abortions, daily Taiwan threat, incredible number of deaths in mines, world leader in executions; makes me wonder just what the hell is everyone so bent out of shape about the US doing this?
At least the US didn't dump hundreds of objects into space because of some idiocy guided test as did China. Hell you could claim the threat is about nil for any space object falling from the sky, the problem is that nil becomes a really big number when it lands in your backyard.
Go and keep waving that dick, it just lets the loonies of the world know that they really aren't in a position to ignore the US or Europe (because I count Europe in a lot of these things - don't for a momnet believe they didn't want it to work). Dick waving is a helluva lot better than throwing actual bombs with little Mr. Mushrooms around
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I mean when looked at from a geeky stand point shooting down a high fast moving object from a ship based platform is rather cool.
... this is irrefutable proof that our missile defense system is totally awesome, flawless, and deserving of billions of dollars of tax investment, right?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
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.! I believe #2 is the main reason, with #3 being a possible 'think of the children' reason. If by chance, the fuel from the satellite would have killed everyone within close proximity to it, then that would have been bad PR indeed.
I think the US would have loved to have taken this satellite out WITHOUT shooting it down. We had nothing to prove. This just makes it ever more difficult for us to come down harder on the next guy that says he wants to shoot down a "failing" satellite. China could easily cause one of their junk satellite to de-orbit "accidentally" next month just for an excuse to shoot it down.
Just being able to say "Look how accurate our missles are!", it's worth the conspiracy theories or potential pissing match that is sure to result. Drawing direct attention to your possible hypocrisies doesn't make good politics.
"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein
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You know, debris clouds of explosions or collisions can, and do, radiate in 3 dimensions. Maybe going to the moon is a little far fetched, but I could imagine that debris generated moving into other orbital planes.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The US government/military (same thing, really) has used up all trust with me. I don't believe ANYTHING they say. I'm not drawing any conclusions whatsoever, just taking all official and unofficial propaganda in with a grain of salt. There are plenty of possibilities, everything is so far gone into wag the dog mode we'll probably never know the truth.
Congratulations on your perceived success, go ahead and cheer, but after all that has gone before, especially recently, the cheerleaders simply look like jingoistic idiots to me.
Or maybe because the Chinese would stop their lending programs, stop the cash flow and take their assets back, completely tanking our governments military fund.
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I would envision the threat scenario of the Chinese threatening the US in any significant financial way would go like so
1. China: We are cancelling all our loans and investments and want our money back now.
2. US: No.
3. China: Ummm
Hypothetically, if the US -would- launch an anti-sattelite missile, and say it was an anti-missile missile, how could we tell the difference?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Probably ill informed, I don't watch the news very often. Say, did they ever find all of those WMDs I used to keep hearing about, (and which you seem to be offering as an excuse for the invasion)?
which is totally what she said