You can't fire thrusters when you don't have any power..

Right to several...they have no contact, they have no control, therefore they can't burn the fuel off or dump it.

To whomever said something about the shuttle trying to rope it in. They don't do that nonsense. You don't send a shuttle in the vicinity of an out of control craft in orbit.

To the issue of the OP - nope, I don't think it's because of the hydrazine.

[edit on 2-17-2008 by Valhall]

All of you are wrong. Completely wrong.

The satellite is powered by a small nuclear reactor, and has been in space for years. So long in fact that it has now run out of fuel and has begun to slowly descend in orbit. America does not want to risk having an airborne Chernobyl type even occur, especially over it's territory.

The original story confirms much and was released just before the fired their new rail gun for us.

This was before the disinformation campaign was launched and even now Russia is saying that the satellite has nuclear material on board.

Google it and see with your own mind the truth that is hidden before you.

i have a question for anybody who may know. if this satellite is nuclear weapons platform wouldnt there be a great deal of fall out and what would be the ramifications of said fall out be? or maybe they just want to flex their muscle for china.

Originally posted by doctormcauley
All of you are wrong. Completely wrong.

Probably not the best approach to be taken cordially. Some people (like myself) haven't even posted a speculation on an alternative reason, so I don't know how I could be wrong.

people must realise that theoretically a satalite could have BOTH hydrazine fuel tanks [ fro attitude / manouvering thrusters ] AND a nuclear power source [ to power the main electrical bus ]

i have not got time to google the sats specs - so just saying , possibly

and yes , ANY fragment of a satelite falling into the hands of potential enemies is always a bad thing - esp if you can destroy it first - and use the oportunity for a weapons test / training exercise

Number one. They are adamant that the shuttle returns home before shootdown. This tells me their may be unexpected consequences. I do believe this is somehow tied to the China thing. I do believe tensions are very high now. Whatever they are concerned about is not hydrazine.

And you don't think the fact that USA 193 and the Shuttle/ISS orbits overlap have ANYTHING to do with that? Anything at all? The biggest difference is that the shuttle is 60-70 miles higher when they cross each other.

Sorry but i had to jump in when i read ebay, r u kidding, the usa government are worried about a piece of the machine being found and being sold on ebay, OK point one, dont u think they could monitor ebay, perhaps they even do, and then catch the culprit if it happened, or point two, theres enough talk about the gvernment monitoring this site, and with all their powers to boot, and high tech equipment, r u telling me they couldnt stop a sale on ebay, and if thats there only excuse well then excuse me, but i smell a rat, or two here, but then whose ever really going to know the truth, head count maybe, well thats all of us never knowing the real story.

I remember talking about this stuff in the late sixties and early seventies and I thought that they put fail safe self destructs in all of these satellites.

Does anyone know if this satellite has a self destruct or fail safe system?

As I remember it these self destructs could be activated even if there was a total system failure..

How are you supposed to activate a self destruct without power or computer control? They have neither on this satellite and it's just tumbling erratically through orbits.

OK makes sense, but the question i ask, will we really ever know whats going on, or what will happen, we seem to be speculating, ok fine, but dont u get the feeling theres something on this spy sat that really really is top secret, all u have to do is look at hows its described, in the press, SPY sat, i think its something to do with not wishing spy tech to be found by others, but then again what do i know, my monies on the word spy and then sat, must be something advanced and very very costly, proof of this Nada nothing, but then who has proof of anything else to do with this conspiracy

Hey Zaphod58,
The nature of a failsafe is that it is expected that something is wrong. That is why I said independent. If it loses power, there is a likelihood that you will have to destroy the satellite. So I would assume it's communications and power systems would be independent of that of the rest of the satellite. A second option would be a reserve battery that powers that system for a period of time following loss of power so that proper actions can be taken. Otherwise, as you pointed out (and engineers would hopefully realize) a powered down self destruct system is pointless.

Make no mistake, though. This is all conjecture on my part. I don't know for certain the limitations of our technology. Maybe I am asking/assuming too much of our space programs. I would think that something like this is not only doable but in practice (either publicly or behind the scenes), but perhaps I am mistaken. If we currently truly do not, then I would propose that it would be a worthwhile endeavor to increase safety, national security and healthy diplomatic relations with other nervous parties.

Even my clunky old pc had a battery that kept the clock working when it was shut down/switched off.

If the designers of these spy satellites cannot inbuild a $5 battery that has the capacity to trigger a self-destruct, or re-communicate with ground control, then they get what they deserve.

Trouble is, it could backfire on us!

I am certain that there are some in the US American government who are sold on this idea because they want to show China what they can do.

But remember, boys and girls, every time the USA's finger is involved in the Far East the USA actually has its eyes on Russia (or the former Soviet Union).

This muscular display of blasting the satellite is meant for Tsar Vladimir Putin's consumption as well as for his commrades.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
How are you supposed to activate a self destruct without power or computer control? They have neither on this satellite and it's just tumbling erratically through orbits.

Fail-safe.

Loss of nominal communications with ground control automatically triggers on-board destruct device.

Which was either NOT included in this bird's design specifications; or failed to function when the bird "went deaf" as claimed.


Are we even certain that this was a spy-sat?


Granted, that's the story Washington is handing us at the momment. But I've come to grow a healthy distrust of the "hand that feeds me".


Perhaps we should be less concerned with hydrazine and possible RTG's, and focus more on what was the mission of the satellite concerned, if at all possible.


I do not think that this bird carried any nukes. If it did, detonating it at altitude would cause a dramatic spike in nuclear radiation, visible to detectors world-wide. The amount of radiation recorded would easily discount the source as being merely a failed RTG, and would result in many angry and retaliatory fingers being pointed at the US.

If there are nukes on-board, and you are fairly certain that it's not going down in "unfriendly" territory; let it fall on its own, cordon off the crash zone, and clean up the debris.


But what if what is about to de-orbit is actually a Non-nuclear Space Weapon? ie."Brilliant Pebbles", or "Rods from God"?


The most Damning components from such a weapons system might very well survive an uncontrolled re-entry; their survival, and thier undeniable association with the US government, might prove to be difficult to explain if exposed to world-wide consideration.


Far better to try to destroy the evidence in space and have it disbursed over a much wider area. Thus the surviving pieces would be harder to find, and it would be easier for US officials to deny that any two pieces of re-claimed debris had any Provable relation to each other, and could in no way be part of an operational US space weapon system!.

Plausible Deniability...Part and parcel of the spy game.