Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit

Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit

www.breitbart.com

A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday.

The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Will some sort of effort to correct its orbit be taken? What sort of hazardous materials is this? Interesting to say the least, sounds a bit like the film Space Cowboys.

www.breitbart.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Man first they scare us half to death with TU24. Now the panic dying down over that they tell us "a Sat will be falling down and we dont know where"

I imagine they could knock it out with some sort of missile but i tend to believe they have more hi tech stuff that would enable this job done.

What type of velocity would this come down at?????

Fit Sats with remote distruction that can be activated from earth thats what i say.

Originally posted by thesaint
Man first they scare us half to death with TU24. Now the panic dying down over that they tell us "a Sat will be falling down and we dont know where"

I imagine they could knock it out with some sort of missile but i tend to believe they have more hi tech stuff that would enable this job done.

What type of velocity would this come down at?????

Fit Sats with remote distruction that can be activated from earth thats what i say.

Yea, I was thinking this as well. I am not that worried about it, I found it an interesting turn of events, preparing us for the 'asteroid storyline', as von Braun said.

Could they be using this as cover for if the asteroid did impact? I know its a long shot but with all the cover ups these days anything seems possible.

An interesting story..

Just three days ago the BBC News reported that:-

China is now only the third country to shoot something down in space.

Both the US and the Soviet Union halted their tests in the 1980s over concerns that the debris they produced could harm civilian and military satellite operations.

While the US may be unhappy about China's actions, the Washington administration has recently opposed international calls to end such tests.

It revised US space policy last October to state that Washington had the right to freedom of action in space, and the US is known to be researching such "satellite-killing" weapons itself.

Italics & Bold print provided by me and are not in the original news story.

So there are at least three countries that have the capability to shoot down this rogue satellite. Should this satellite fall to Earth then it was meant to.

Blowing up satellites in space causes huge amounts of debris to put into orbit, where it further endanger other satellites and rockets. They already had enough of a problem with China doing and creating approx. 2,000 to 3,000 more pieces of junk for NASA to track. I can see why they wouldn't blow it up in orbit, but not knowing where it was going to come down? That sounds off.

reply to post by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR

If it was to come down on January 29th I would be very concerned that you may be right. It is supposed to come down in late February or in March, which doesn't coincide with TU24.

I find it very hard to believe that they wouldn't fit a 'SPY' satellite with a self destruct. Another option may be an ABL (Airborne Laser Weapon System) like this.

en.wikipedia.org...

Atlantis is scheduled for launch on Feb. 7th. There have been 3 other satellite rescue missions in the past by the space shuttle.

1985

The STS-51I Discovery mission repaired the Syncom communications satellite stuck in low-Earth orbit.

1990

The STS-32 Columbia mission recovered the LDEF (Long-Duration Exposure Facility) scientific satellite left in Earth orbit on STS-41C and returned it to Earth for study.

1992

The STS-49 Endeavour mission attached a new rocket motor to the Intelsat 6 communications satellite to allow it to reach geosynchronous orbit.

I see no reason why Atlantis could not be used to capture this satellite.

Those Chinese have proved themselves worthy at destroying a satellite. I think they would love to help us out and blow up a US satellite.

Guz

reply to post by Guzzeppi


Thanks for the clarification . Guess the only thing we can do is sit and wait.
I agree that there should at least be a system in place to push it out of orbit and off into space if it loses tracking and senses its going to lose altitude.

I read somewhere that there are numerous objects orbiting Earth which carry nuclear reactors. If this is true I hope this is not one of them!!

Dont know if any of you can clarify if this is true?

Spy satellite loses power, may fall to Earth
Satellite could contain hazardous materials; agencies closely monitor
www.msnbc.msn.com...

reply to post by Guzzeppi


There's no way to tell if this satellite is even anywhere near the functional plane of the shuttle/ISS.

There's a lot of ocean out there, the odds are with it falling there, somewhere.

The question is: if they determine it's going to strike an inhabited area, what will their options be at that point.

Will they shoot it down, risking further contamination of the NEO operational sphere?

Will they let us know if they do?

Will they scrub the already planned shuttle mission and redirect it to retrieve/repair/redirect the satellite?

Probably not.

Will they deny there was ever a problem, and correct the situation quietly with some of their rumored "Black Ops" tech?

"Oh, it was just a glitch, everything is fine now"

Maybe they'll blame the appearance of a problem on the ten F-16's they forgot they had flying that day...

Another question comes to mind; what caused it to fail to begin with?

The "Alien Threat!?!"

I am thinking it might be some kind of Nuclear powered Satellite?

Originally posted by oLDWoRLDDiSoRDeR
I agree that there should at least be a system in place to push it out of orbit and off into space if it loses tracking and senses its going to lose altitude.

Every satellite would need a decent sized rocket engine attached to it then, which would only be used 'just in case'. Sounds costly and inefficient, even for the US government.

well if you put a self-destruct switch on board a sat
then there is always a chance that the sat comm link
could be hacked and detonate it without authorization.
It's a fail safe NOT to put one on board.

What I would suggest to fix rogue sats like this in the
future is to use a space version of a tugboat. Move the
bad sat out of earth's orbit out into space so it doesn't
re-enter the earth's atmosphere and harm anyone.
Who knows in 86 million years it might reach
another galaxy and they might respond with a search
and rescue party. LOL

He would not comment on whether it is possible for the satellite to be perhaps shot down by a missile.

He said it would be inappropriate to discuss any specifics at this time.

This bugs me allot . inappropriate to discuss? Well jeez .
What standard do these guys use to decide this stuff?

Having a self destruct command would be no better than launching a missile at a satellite. Also, if it does have some sort of nuclear reactor or payload, you do not want a nuclear detonation occuring in space or at high altitudes.

You may have heard of the Van Allen belt, after a high altitude nuclear test in 1962, the Starfish Prime test, the belts radiation was amplified. The radiation of the Van Allen belt already causes problems with satellites in orbit, amplifying it could put many other satellites into jeopardy.

Now if I only knew which satellite it was! Of course, if it is a spy satellite as they say, then this program my or may not show it.

Anyways, the above image is current as of this post.

Originally posted by goosdawg

There's no way to tell if this satellite is even anywhere near the functional plane of the shuttle/ISS.

Your absolutely correct on that note! I forgot to imply that with my post, but it is in their grasp to use the shuttle. I believe they would have done this by now if they wanted to rescue this satellite.

I believe this is the satellite that they are talking about.

www.reuters.com...

Other info on L-21:

mt-milcom.blogspot.com...

This puts the SAT at 57 degrees.

Space Shuttles destined for equatorial orbits are launched from the KSC, and those requiring polar orbital planes will be launched from Vandenberg.

Kennedy Space Center launches have an allowable path no less than 35 degrees northeast and no greater than 120 degrees southeast. These are azimuth degree readings based on due east from KSC as 90 degrees.

A 35-degree azimuth launch places the spacecraft in an orbital inclination of 57 degrees. This means the spacecraft in its orbital trajectories around the Earth will never exceed an Earth latitude higher or lower than 57 degrees north or south of the equator.

We could launch from Vandenberg to achieve the orbital plane we need.

Guz

Originally posted by Guzzeppi
I believe this is the satellite that they are talking about.

www.reuters.com...

Other info on L-21:

mt-milcom.blogspot.com...

Nope, can't be L-21. L-21 was abandoned quite a while ago...

www.freerepublic.com...
www.telegraph.co.uk...
rinf.com...

[edit on 1/26/2008 by damajikninja]