Pentagon to shoot down broken spy satellite

Pentagon to shoot down broken spy satellite

www.msnbc.msn.com

BREAKING NEWS

updated 5 minutes ago
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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Military will fire three missles a spy satellite

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

Here is another article saying the same thing, but that it is considered a secret, and will be announced by the Pentagon in a press briefing, so keep it under your hat.

www.cnn.com...

I hope they know what their doing. They plan on blowing it up and some of it will become orbiting space junk. That's just what they need more of.

I have a feeling they just don't want the technology falling into the wrong hands.

This one beat you by a few minutes:

US to shoot down broken spy sat

moving thread over to Space Exploration.

[edit on 2-14-2008 by worldwatcher]

This might be a dumb post

If parts of this bird are likely to survive re-entry what's the likelihood of a missile doing the job? At least it's all fairly predictable at the moment.

I'm assuming this is gonna be a conventional warhead - mind you this could be a perfect excuse for a nuke!! That will show China and the rest of em! If they go ahead with the plan I'm betting hitting the sat would not be the top reason.

reply to post by Bayman


Hi Bayman, if they are launching 3 missiles to knock this satellite out it must be very top secret, and by the way if they do get a strike and knock it out where will all that debris land. Where will the other 2 missiles land and will there be fallout debris from the missles? One last question if all 3 missiles miss then what? Rik Riley







[edit on 14-2-2008 by rikriley]

as of right now, the bush administration plans on firing a modified missile from a US Navy ship. the reasoning some suspect they want to shoot it down is because they believe that more than 50% of the satellite could survive re-entry and there are some who believe that it contains a top secret imagining device. more information can be found from the following sites

www.washingtonpost.com...

www.nytimes.com...

news.bbc.co.uk...

hope those help...

raptor 1

Well it looks to me like their only reason for shooting it down it to destroy it, they dont care about debris landing or any space junk.

reply to post by Flyer


I watched the Pentagon statement, they are thinking about where the debris is gonna come in... Basically they are gonna wait up till the shuttle is back first, and then try and blast it when it is just on the edge of the atmosphere (wherever they define 'edge'), I suppose the impact will be at 180 deg to the satellites orbit as all debris is to slow down considerably and enter the atmosphere there.

They primarily want to destroy the furl tanks while the thing is in orbit so as to loose the fuel, then they want to pick the time the satellite re enters to avoid land masses. And lastly if the satellite were to enter in it's current very unaerodynamic they say it would be a nightmare to predict where it would end up even at the last minute cos it's just gonna tumble all the way down, suppose smaller bits should be easier.

reply to post by Now_Then


Of course they are going to say that but dozens of projectiles hitting earth are far more dangerous than 1 or 2.

Their only concern is to destroy it.

I had no idea the NAVY had ASAT missiles on there ships.

What missiles are they going to use?

My god, there shooting down the Satalite at the exact time as the solar eclipse, i bet this was there plan all along, a Dark Masonic Ritual over Canadian Soil.

Do they think the dibris is going to kill allot of people, or is there there another means of destruction when the time comes.

news.sky.com...

God Save Canada.

Tomorrow is also the day H.S. THOMPSON shot himself in the head. (machine gun guy)

Originally posted by Flyer
reply to post by Now_Then

 

Of course they are going to say that but dozens of projectiles hitting earth are far more dangerous than 1 or 2.

Their only concern is to destroy it.

Not really. Earth is hit thousands of time each day by meteors/space debris. The smaller the "chunks" the more likely they are to burn up during re-entry.