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What did North Korea put into orbit?

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posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 02:45 PM
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reply to post by OmegaLogos
 


The small payload rules out a lot of bad things they could have thrown up there. For example it isn't a nuclear bomb put in to orbit for an emp strike.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 04:19 PM
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I find it interested that on the same day N Korea launches their missile, the US sends up the not so secret "secret space plane".



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 04:27 PM
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The X-37 is in the wrong orbit to do anything with this satellite, and doesn't have the fuel to change its orbit enough to get to it. If they were going up to do anything about this thing, then they would have launched from Vandenberg.

The problem with the "the X-37 will handle it" theory is that the X-37 was originally scheduled for an October launch, well before anyone knew when North Korea would try a launch. They had to delay because a GPS III satellite launch that used the same upper stage engine as the rocket that launched the X-37 had an anomaly. They delayed the launch until they could find out why.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 07:49 PM
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Originally posted by TerrorAlertRed
I find it interested that on the same day N Korea launches their missile, the US sends up the not so secret "secret space plane".


that was North Korea's choice not the US.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 07:50 PM
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UPDATE!!!!

Apparently it is some sort of satellite but is now out of control but no one seems to know what it is.

worldnews.nbcnews.com...


edit on 12-12-2012 by ChesterJohn because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 09:02 PM
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When I saw someone post the earlier characteristics I noticed there was something like 100km difference between its closest and farthest orbit to Earth. Me and my brother discussed it and decided it was probably going to fall out of the sky soon.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 11:05 PM
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Originally posted by dorkfish87
I've got a gut feeling we will find out what this mystery object is the hard way. How can we view planets orbiting distant stars but can't figure out what something in our orbit is?


We cheat.
Detecting planets around other stars usually involves a lot of very precise observation and an obscene amount of math. Astronomers look for miniscule "wobbles" in a star, caused by the gravity of an orbiting planet or planets, and for tiny periodic changes in stellar brightness, caused when a non-radiating body transits the star. Even if a planet is detected, we don''t have a lot of details about it...we can figure its approximate size, mass, orbital period, orbital distance, and, if we're lucky, we can get some information on any atmosphere by spectroscopic analysis. We can't tell if there are cities there, or even land of any size. We can just put a dot on our stellar map and a note "here there be dragons...err..planets".

Looking at a satellite in orbit, we have another kind of puzzle. We have more data (direct visual and / or radar observation at relatively short range), and that will give us a fair amount of data. We can fairly rapidly figure out a satellite's physical size, rough shape, and mass. We can calculate its orbital period and inclination to a ridiculous number of decimal points. What we can't do is see inside the beeping thing. We can make educated guesses, based on the type of orbit (polar orbits are popular with weather birds, geosynchronous orbits are popular with communications birds, spy satellites tend to wind up in odd-looking orbits that maximize their time over points of interest, etc.

Given the small size and mass of the North Korean satellite, it's almost certainly not a weapon...it's not big or heavy enough to be a nuclear or EMP device. We can probably rule out a "rod from God" kinetic weapon as well. It might be exactly what the North Koreans claim it is. We (or at least the US government and some close allies) will probably have a better idea of its mission if and when it starts sending data back to ground stations, and our ELINT platforms can intercept it.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 11:10 PM
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Originally posted by Mkoll
When I saw someone post the earlier characteristics I noticed there was something like 100km difference between its closest and farthest orbit to Earth. Me and my brother discussed it and decided it was probably going to fall out of the sky soon.


Very few orbits are perfectly circular, particularly immediately after orbital insertion. If a more circular orbit is needed (and it's not, for most orbital missions), there will normally be one or more maneuvers performed in the hours (or days) after achieving orbit to "polish" the rough elliptical orbit into whatever is desired. The only time the discrepancy between the highest and lowest points of an orbit becomes an issue is when / if the low point dips into the upper atmosphere. If that's happening, your satellite is going to have a very short life span. Outside that worst-case scenario, a non-circular orbit isn't any indication of an unstable orbit.



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 11:15 PM
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reply to post by Brother Stormhammer
 


Indeed. Although I really have no frame of reference for this the 100 km of difference seemed pretty large to me, and perhaps a sign of something. I wouldn't be surprised though if they manage to mess up some adjustment burns or something malfunctions while they are adjusting the orbit. If they have had such troubling getting one of these into orbit in the first place I can only imagine the learning curve once they're actually there.

edit on 12-12-2012 by Mkoll because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 12 2012 @ 11:31 PM
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Originally posted by Atzil321
Putting a can of soup in orbit would be a triumph for them.
2nd line...


Hell, that would be a triumph for most countries, big fella.

Is it nuclear, or just plain primordial?
edit on 12-12-2012 by aorAki because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 13 2012 @ 07:16 AM
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Did North Korea fire a missile or a rocket? Did it reach escape speed?



posted on Dec, 13 2012 @ 07:29 AM
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Missle or rocket doesn't matter it reached orbit. The US used missles to put men into orbit because they knew they had the power to do it. And the price was right



posted on Dec, 15 2012 @ 11:04 AM
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I bet it was Kim Jong Il's tomb.




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