Heads Up Canadians...

[Thrashdragon]

...We're dropping a satellite on you.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/0...hoot-down.html

As you probably know by now, the U.S. military is going to try to shoot down a dying satellite on Wednesday, around 10:30 PM eastern time (3:30 AM Greenwich Mean Time on the 21st), before it plummets into the atmosphere. That's right smack in the middle of a lunar eclipse, which should make the machine easier to track. Satellite-watchers have figured out where the Navy cruiser will take its shot -- and where the debris cloud is likely to go afterwards.

"To my considerable surprise, it's on an ascending pass that will take the debris cloud across central Canada a few minutes later. Then across a bit of western Africa and eastern Australia."

[Mobojo]

Aww... I want a piece of a satellite.

[Thrashdragon]

Here's some pretty neat footage of the shot. It starts with the launch off of an Aegis cruiser, follows the missile, goes black for a couple of seconds, then shows the satellite getting nailed.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/0...-pentagon.html

Pretty impressive that we can shoot a missile off of a ship and pop something the size of a school bus going 17,000 miles an hour. Doesn't hurt that we just showed the world that we can nail something smaller, colder, and faster than an ICBM, either.

[Jeffro]

dude, i'm convinced that the satellite had to have a self destruct on it in case something like this would happen. we just like to throw it people's faces that we can blow them to hell lol.

[BKnight3]

I really don't know. How long can a block of c4 last in space, and can you trust it to detonate after several decades in orbit? That, and would you really wanna risk launching High Explosives into space after having a history of two shuttles going boom?

[minfootball]

i thought there was some international treaty that prevented putting explosives in orbit

[-Bar]

i thought there was some international treaty that prevented putting explosives in orbit

So what.... Everyone else does what they want anyways... why should we follow the rules ?


I am along the lines of them testing a new technology. It might have been an out of date satellite but there was another motive to this other then shooting it down.

[drunken_chef]

whether it had a self destruct or not doesn't matter. the reason that they had to kill it was because we lost control of it.

[Rand{CLR}]

The simple answer is we blew it up to keep the technology out of enemy (and probably even allied) hands. It wasn't an older satellite. We launched it in December, and it failed out of the box. It was a military bird, and was probably the most advanced thing in space. The "toxic fuel" story is just a cover.

It wasn't to prove we could do it. We took out a satellite with an air-to-air missile kill back in 1988. Everyone knows we can take them out, and has known for almost 20 years. It does happen to help foster our advancement of anti-ICBM tech, because the reason why Standard MK-3s exist in the first place is to supplement those useless anti-missile silos in Alaska, but that's by no means the primary objective.

As far as explosives in space, keep in mind a large number of mil satellites and most of the long-range probes are nuclear powered. They may be rigged, but we're not likely to set those off. In terms of other explosives, I'm of the mindset that if you think we haven't already militarized some of our satellites, you're fooling yourself. We've also given some of them manuevering ability to "dodge" attempts to knock them down.

-Rand

[Apache Warrior]

Also, the Chinese shot down a "weather satellite" January 11, 2008 and no one said a thing. And, it was in a much higher orbit where it contributes to the larger amount of dangerous debris.
Apache

[Kriotek]

would make a nice light show when the debris enters the atmosphere though (if it fell in at night that is).

[Zantheus]

would make a nice light show when the debris enters the atmosphere though (if it fell in at night that is).

Yes it would and as a Canadian I would like to know the area it is supposed to be falling so I can pack mah bags and get there fast

[Rand{CLR}]

Also, the Chinese shot down a "weather satellite" January 11, 2008 and no one said a thing. And, it was in a much higher orbit where it contributes to the larger amount of dangerous debris.
Apache

Actually, quite a lot was said about it. It proves our likely opponent as this whole war on terror thing evolves into WW3 can knock out one of our biggest advantages: the GPS sats. There may not have been much in the mainstream media, but the military and strategic intelligence sites went nuts.

-Rand