Son of Star Wars takes out toxic satellite in $30m space hit

Times of London ^ | 02/22/08 | Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Jane Macartney in Beijing

[Red Badger]

the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser,

[RKV]

I sent the following to Sen. Carl Levin.

“Senator,

Given the recent demonstration by the USS Lake Erie and her Aegis system, are you finally going to abandon your demonstrably false position on strategic missile defense? You’ve been proven wrong (again) and Ronald Reagan has been proven right (again). Give. It. Up. Sir.

Events have passed you by. Americans have not forgotten your unprincipled commitment weakening America’s defense, even if you manage to get yourself re-elected in Michigan through the perks of incumbency and pork-barrel politics.”

http://www.senate.gov/~levin/contact/index.cfm

[sergeantdave]

How do they do that - hitting a piece of fast-moving space junk 150 miles away with a tiny missle?

When I throw a useless computer out the window from my office and try to hit the garbage can 20 feet away, I always miss.

Guess that’s why I wasn’t in the Naval ship gunnery, or whatever it’s called.

[G.Mason]

Nicely done.

[Moonman62]

Missile experts said that the Standard SM-3 weapon, fired from the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, took about three minutes to reach the satellite 150 miles (240km) up in the sky, flew above it and then descended before impact at a closing speed of 22,000mph to ensure that the debris was forced down to Earth.

That's a capability I didn't know we had, and is quite impressive. It used to be that all these kill vehicles could do was get in the way.

[ModelBreaker]

This would be really painful to those liberals who ridiculed and savaged Ronald Reagan and Edward Teller for pushing Strategic Defense Initiative(Star Wars.) They said it would never work. Well, it works fine and well.

There were many derisive raspberries on a thread I followed on a football forum I belong to. Before the launch. The moonbats have been mysteriously absent from that thread since the launch.

Funny thing, most of them seem to think W started the missile defense program. To his credit, he did deploy it.

[massgopguy]

Compare what we can do to what the Russians did when the Mir Space Toilet fell out of the sky.

[massgopguy]

Shaq can’t hit a free throw and he’s a millionaire.

[TigerLikesRooster]

most of them seem to think W started the missile defense program.

I wouldn't be surprised if they thought Ronald Reagan was U.S. President before WWII.

[DGHoodini]

And because they have no honor or integrity, because they hold nothing dear beyond their own gratification and immediate sense of safety...they have now way to feel shame.

[Piquaboy]

I remember how the Rats excoriated President Reagan about his Star Wars dream,

[SW6906]

Beautiful. Just beautiful. Let us know if you get a reply (when pigs fly).

[ASOC]

There is cost
(From a 2006 article )
Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) has been awarded a contract with a total value of $266 million to build, test and deliver Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) rounds to the Missile Defense Agency to meet the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense deployment requirements. Initial funding of $168 million has been issued.

The contract calls for SM-3 Block IA missiles to be produced for the United States and Japan and for flight test support, engineering activity, system upgrades and continued cooperative research and development work with Japan.

Other sources place the unit cost of a SM-3 at ‘about’ 10M a pop.

and then, there is COST

“Military analyst John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said the success of the missile tests bodes well, but it’s unclear whether the government will buy enough missiles to form a reliable shield.

“The real question isn’t ’How well is it doing?’ The question is, ’Am I still worried about North Korea’s nuclear missiles?’ “ Pike said
“

[Fiddlstix]

I stopped subscribing to Scientific American when they turned Edward Teller's obituary into a hit piece on him. Such low class.

It is sad. Scientific American, a once respectable publication, has become a liberal "junk science" rag.
IMHO

Unfortunately, the same can be said for many "once respectable" publications.

[norraad]

Humorous aspect of eyes going bad, I read that as Mr. Space Toilet!

[RightWhale]

descended before impact at a closing speed of 22,000mph to ensure that the debris was forced down to Earth.

Galileo would be astounded that after 300 years so many still don't get the basics of physics.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Great picture.

I met Edward Teller in college. He was a very interesting man.

[TampaDude]

WE...FREAKING...ROCK!!!

Kinetic kill is the shiznitz...the impact at such high velocity releases over ten times the energy of an equivalent mass of TNT. An esimated 130 megajoules of kinetic energy was released upon impact with the satellite...that’s about 96 MILLION FOOT POUNDS! Sucks to be that satellite.

Hey, China, guess what? WE STILL RULE THE SKIES!!!

I’ve been so pumped about this the past couple of days. It is so sweet beyond words. GO NAVY!!!

[Bender2]

Re: Son of Star Wars takes out toxic satellite in $30m space hit

Gadzooks! The sumbitches at the Times of London... mostly got it right!