Posted on 12/13/2012 12:42:16 PM PST by BenLurkin
Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok, briefing South Korean reporters, told them that, “for the time being,” the satellite is “working normally.”
That word seemed to snuff out the image of the satellite wobbling off course as it circles the earth in what the ministry says is an oval pattern. The satellite, says the ministry, takes 95.4 minutes to complete an orbit at a speed of about four miles per second.
The difference in analysis appears to revolve around what kind of orbit the satellite is in as it whirls about 300 miles above the earth’s surface.
Lee Sung-yoon, professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School in Medford, Mass., argues that North Korea has “not yet developed a fully functioning satellite despite their apparent success in ballistic propulsion technology.” Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reports that analysts at the Korean Aerospace Research Institute believe North Korean engineers aimed to put the satellite in a circular orbit, but that it’s now in an elliptical orbit. That doesn’t mean, they say, that it’s “out of control.”
The institute's Lee Kyu-su says the North Koreans could correct the course of the satellite, which weighs 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds), with the help of a small booster, which the North Koreans don’t have.
The big mystery, according to Mr. Kim at the defense ministry, is what the North Korean satellite is really doing up there. “It is not yet known what kind of mission the satellite is conducting,” he says. “It usually takes two weeks to evaluate whether a satellite is successful.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What the object is doing now is irrelevant, what is relevant is that the Norks got it up there.
“It usually takes two weeks to evaluate whether a satellite is successful.”
I’m calling Horseclinton on this.
We should send the Rand Corp over there to help them out like Klinton did with the Chicoms when he was POTUS.
The first satellite, Russia’s “Sputnik” simply had a beeping radio transmitter so as to announce its presence to the world. My bet is the N. Koreans didn’t even have that and the satellite might just contain 100 kilos of Dear Leader’s old golf balls, empty Hennesy bottles or other junk.
If the Norks can only throw nukes as far as California, then they’re not a threat to Americans.
I’m more upset that we didn’t shoot the damn thing down just after launch, like we should do every time they try. Now we’ve let them prove out their technology.
“If the Norks can only throw nukes as far as California, then they’re not a threat to Americans.”
http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/dontknow.wav
Lots of other stuff to track on the main page. Enjoy!
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