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India Developing Vehicle To Knock Enemy Satellites

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the start-humming-the-music dept.

Frankie70 writes "Star Wars are back in fashion. With perennial (and nuclear armed) foe Pakistan always teetering on the brink of political collapse and neighboring regional superpower China taking greater strides into space technology, India has announced that it is developing an exo-atmospheric 'kill vehicle' that will knock enemy satellites out of orbit."

9 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Oh great, more orbital shooting gallery! by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With everyone "testing" their antisatellite weaponry and creating ever more orbital debris, pretty soon there'll be so much debris up there we won't be able to keep any satellites operational.

    China's test of a year or two back may have already generated enough debris to start a chain reaction, any more and we may definitely go over the brink to where nothing is survivable in low earth orbit.

    --PM

    1. Re:Oh great, more orbital shooting gallery! by MRe_nl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There's an article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977.
      Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what--Salyut 3 had a machine gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside, along the long axis of the station "for defence against US space-based inspectors/interceptors".

      http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/

      --
      "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
    2. Re:Oh great, more orbital shooting gallery! by icebrain · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The thing is, it's not just military spacecraft that would be targeted. Assuming the ASAT rounds have the range, you'd see things like com satellites (even civilian ones--think Iridium), GPS satellites, maybe even weather observation satellites. In a full-blown war where it's drastic enough to start downing birds, you're going to hit anything that could possibly help your enemies and give you a better chance to survive.

      --
      The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
  2. Knock out of orbit? by jpmorgan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can't just 'knock something out of orbit,' like it's a porcelain vase on a mantelpiece. Orbits do not work that way! They're building a kill vehicle to blow up satellites.

    They're still going to be in orbit, just in lots of little pieces.

  3. Ready set fight by RedTeflon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I personally cant wait for Dish & Direct TV to start battling it out by shooting down each others satellites.

  4. The problem is by LoudMusic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is, even if you knock down their satellites they're going to retaliate on the ground in your largest populated cities. And they don't need their satellites to do that.

    --
    No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
  5. Re:Knock by MRe_nl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Luckily, very few satellites these days have "Wizard Lock" and or "Hold Portal" cast on them.

    --
    "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
  6. Re:Buckshot orbital shooting gallery! by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fortunately, space is big. Really big.

    [citation needed]

    --
    Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
  7. Re:India announces a lot. by MRe_nl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Five aircraft carriers on the moon would do India a fat lot of good,
    there's no atmosphere for the planes you dumbass.

    --
    "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"