Pass the tinfoil hats, please!
Just now while watching the CBC News, I learned the Pentagon has commanded a U.S. Navy ship will shoot down a failed National Reconnaisance Office spy satellite.
We don’t know much about the satellite except it was launched on December 14, 2006, it failed several hours after entering orbit and was apparently designed with the ability for a controlled de-orbit, but since control has been lost, that is not an option !
According to the experts, about half of the 5000-pound satellite would survive atmospheric re-entry. With a full tank of noxious hydrazine rocket fuel aboard (!)
Anyone within two football field’s distance would be sickened by the fumes.
"The U.S. Navy will fire one SM-3 missile from a ship in an effort to hit the satellite just as it grazes the atmosphere. By waiting until it is just about to re-enter before blasting it, they intend for most of the debris to quickly fall out of orbit and burn up … most of it within hours, almost all of it within days or weeks.
This is not the first time a government has shot down a satellite. A decision to shoot down the satellite is sure to cause controversy in the aerospace community, as it would result in a massive amount of additional space junk in low earth orbit.
In January 2007, China used a land-based missile to destroy a 2,200-pound weather satellite called Fengyun-1C that was orbiting 528 miles above Earth.
That impact left more than 150,000 pieces of debris floating around he Earth, the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office estimates. The space agency characterizes nearly 2,600 pieces s “large,” meaning greater than 10 cm (4 inches) across.
China is responsible for 42 percent of all satellite debris in orbit as of January 1, most of it from that Fengyun-1C satellite. NASA has called it the worst satellite breakup in history." - from CNN
Are you kidding?
They are more worried about pieces of the damn thing ending up being auctioned off by Texans on eBay ;-)
First of all, they've got to hit the thing. A moving target. *lips twitch*
Ahh..so they decide to try to blow it up over the ocean, the U.S. Space Program's favourite dumping ground..
Deep sea tuna for dinner anyone?
We don’t know much about the satellite except it was launched on December 14, 2006, it failed several hours after entering orbit and was apparently designed with the ability for a controlled de-orbit, but since control has been lost, that is not an option !
According to the experts, about half of the 5000-pound satellite would survive atmospheric re-entry. With a full tank of noxious hydrazine rocket fuel aboard (!)
Anyone within two football field’s distance would be sickened by the fumes.
"The U.S. Navy will fire one SM-3 missile from a ship in an effort to hit the satellite just as it grazes the atmosphere. By waiting until it is just about to re-enter before blasting it, they intend for most of the debris to quickly fall out of orbit and burn up … most of it within hours, almost all of it within days or weeks.
This is not the first time a government has shot down a satellite. A decision to shoot down the satellite is sure to cause controversy in the aerospace community, as it would result in a massive amount of additional space junk in low earth orbit.
In January 2007, China used a land-based missile to destroy a 2,200-pound weather satellite called Fengyun-1C that was orbiting 528 miles above Earth.
That impact left more than 150,000 pieces of debris floating around he Earth, the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office estimates. The space agency characterizes nearly 2,600 pieces s “large,” meaning greater than 10 cm (4 inches) across.
China is responsible for 42 percent of all satellite debris in orbit as of January 1, most of it from that Fengyun-1C satellite. NASA has called it the worst satellite breakup in history." - from CNN
Are you kidding?
They are more worried about pieces of the damn thing ending up being auctioned off by Texans on eBay ;-)
First of all, they've got to hit the thing. A moving target. *lips twitch*
Ahh..so they decide to try to blow it up over the ocean, the U.S. Space Program's favourite dumping ground..
Deep sea tuna for dinner anyone?
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