Pentagon to shoot down broken spy satellite

AP ^ | 02-14-2008 | AP

[montag813]

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.

This is the U.S. military will use a missile to destroy a satellite in space, NBC News reports.

The spy satellite has lost all power and is expected to crash back on earth in early March, spreading debris and potentially hazardous fuel over several hundred miles.

[montag813]

Modified SM-3 missiles will be used from a destroyer and cruiser in the Pacific.

[PlanoMike]

Should be a good test.

[saganite]

Didn’t we get all perturbed because the Chinese shot a sattelite in orbit and created a lot of space junk?

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Won’t this cause a debris cloud similar to the one the Chinese created, endangering the space station, etc.?

[L,TOWM]

Right out of a Tom Clancy novel.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

I guess the Chinese can say now their reasons for doing the same thing were just as valid.

[rhombus]

If the intercept is successful and the satellite blown to bits, it appears most of the debris will become orbitting "space junk" and not re-enter the earth's atmopshere.

Just more junk to keep track of now... it's getting pretty messy up there.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Cool. When?

[RightWhale]

They might chunk it, but a call to Beijing would result in the advise that blowing up a satellite doesn’t bring it down but results in thousands of smaller satellites.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Earlier article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22857051/

"...The U.S. military has no weapon designed to shoot down a satellite, but it demonstrated the ability to do that in the mid-1980s, and could cobble together a plan to do so again fairly quickly, said the senior defense official.

Such a move appears unlikely, given global dismay about China’s use of a missile to destroy a much bigger satellite at a higher orbit, which scattered nearly 1,000 pieces of debris throughout space, the official said..."

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Near-Earth orbit spy satellite. Debris should enter atmosphere and burn up shortly after destruction. Space Center is further out in space.

OTOH, I’d scream with laughter if they “accidently” took out an communist spy-sat.

Memo to Putin: Ooops, my bad
Signed: Dubya

[Living Free in NH]

Didn’t we get all perturbed because the Chinese shot a sattelite in orbit and created a lot of space junk?

Yeah, but come on, they're Chinese...

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

But the space shuttle still has to fly through that altitude range.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

“I guess the Chinese can say now their reasons for doing the same thing were just as valid.”

As if they care about “valid” reasons for anything they do....

[rellimpank]

---spreading debris and potentially hazardous fuel over several hundred miles.--

--I can't believe the fuel was going to survive re-entry or that it was going to be that hazardous--so now we are going to spread junk over multiples of millions of cubic miles of space just as the Chinese did??

[Charles Martel]

Modified SM-3 missiles will be used from a destroyer and cruiser in the Pacific.

Wow, looks like I actually guessed correctly at the likely weapons system.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

there must be some other reason for doing this - maybe the Russians have the capability to grab it.

[MeanWestTexan]

different orbit, no?

And that said, who cares?

[theDentist]

I think this is also a “heads up” to China, Russia, NK and Iran as well.

[dangerdoc]

“there must be some other reason for doing this - maybe the Russians have the capability to grab it.”

Or the debri field will cross paths with a few chinese or ruski satellites on the way down.

[RayChuang88]

This is not exactly news. I believe the Russians in the past tested this using their Almaz manned military space station.

[Charles Martel]

Won’t this cause a debris cloud similar to the one the Chinese created, endangering the space station, etc.?

Depends on when and where they hit it. If they wait until the satellite is low enough that it's beginning to contact the atmosphere, then most of the little pieces resulting from a missile strike will burn up pretty quickly.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Time for someone to invent a new space vacuum cleaner!!

[purpleraine]

We were just PO’d because it was China.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Is this satellite in a polar orbit - launched from Vandenberg?

[plsvn]

Won’t this cause a debris cloud similar to the one the Chinese created, endangering the space station, etc.?

Note that they are waiting for USA-193 to come down very low, below the operational height of most if not all low earth orbit satellites. When they try to destroy it then, presumably the debris cloud will remain low and decay relatively quickly... not to say some debris might be ejected into a higher orbit for a while, but hopefully they'll control the collision/destruction in such a way to minimize this.

[nascarnation]

I’m surprised we haven’t sub-contracted this work out TO the Chinese.........

[Constitution Day]

Did you see the Nova show on that recently? Wild stuff.

[rellimpank]

-—I can’t help but have the horrible feeling it may be for “environmental” reasons—like “green” bullets-—

[Charles Martel]

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Coverup.

Alien’s have taken over the device and were planning a covert insertion. good thing it was discovered.

That’s why the government secretly funds concept SCI-FI movies from obscure screewriters. We have stories that lay-out a scenario, it is made into a move (AVP) and then if it really happens, nobody believes it. ingenious.

[saganite]

And that said, who cares?

Anybody who puts a functioning satellite in orbit would be my first guess but I could be wrong. /s/

[theFIRMbss]

>Cool

When normal people
shoot up an old TV set,
you have a few beers

and make it game.
The Feds should let the Navy
make it a contest,

let two task forces
try to shoot down the space junk,
winner gets shore leave . . .

[squidly]

Time for someone to invent a new space vacuum cleaner!!

There are going to be more and more business opportunities for getting rid of space junk. The most interesting sounding idea I've heard (not really a new one) is to electromagnetically push it away from one's vehicle/satellite. Sort of like an electromagnetic bumper. Although I'm not an expert, or well versed in the feasibility of this.

[Redcloak]

The resulting cloud of debris will be in the same decaying orbit as the original satellite. (Less a few bits and pieces that might get enough kinetic energy to move into a higher orbit.) The mess will burn up in the atmosphere. The Chinese blew up a satellite that was in a higher, more stable orbit. Their debris is also in that higher, more stable orbit.

[plsvn]

Is this satellite in a polar orbit - launched from Vandenberg?

USA-193's inclination is 58.5 degrees so isn't "that" polar. The most northerly it gets is Hudson Bay, central Siberia. South end of the orbit gets a far south as the southern tip of South America.

[MeanWestTexan]

Functioning satellites in that orbit has one particular purpose.

[stylin19a]

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a later Pentagon briefing.

can't anybody keep their mouths shut ?

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Or - the Russians or Chinese have been able to hack into the software. I’m surprised these satellites don’t have a self-destruct device.

[Captain Rhino]

Check.

This is the Standard Missile variant developed by the Navy to create a sea-based theater anti-ballistic capability for the Missile Defense Agency. It has been successfully tested a number of times.

Shooting down the satellite should be a piece of cake given its size.

[ReignOfError]

IM transcript:

PutinKremlin3: d00d! u shot my sat!

WThePrez: p0wn3d! LOL

PutinKremlin3:u r teh suq

WThePrez: all ur sats are belong to us

[theFIRMbss]

>Anybody who puts a functioning satellite in orbit would be my first guess but I could be wrong

Don't worry -- Freepers
always put their satellites
in high orbit and

design their birds with
active defense protocols . . .
The forum is safe.

[mad_as_he$$]

Everything on Earth orbit will come down sooner or later.

[coloradan]

Time for someone to invent a new space vacuum cleaner!!

I don't know how to tell you this, but vacuum cleaners don't work in a vacuum.

[theDentist]

Nope. Venezuelans perhaps.

[coloradan]

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because the information released was Sensitive Compartmented Information.

[svcw]

Maybe we should just hire the Chinese to shoot down the broken satilite...you know jobs Americans wont do.

[JennysCool]

Since it’s our money paying for this, we need good, cool video.

[ReignOfError]

Time for someone to invent a new space vacuum cleaner!!

I don't think a vacuum cleaner would work in a vacuum. But I was just thinking about that very thing -- how about several satellites sweeping around the earth with big aerogel panels on the front? That should capture the smaller particles.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

xlnt