North Korean satellite 'tumbling out of control,' US officials say

reply to post by Phage


So, is the mean orbit stable altitude-wise? Or is it degrading? I can't tell.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by CatrionaBeldame

 

"Out of control" just means it's tumbling. It's in a fixed orbit at a high enough altitude so it will be up there for a very long time. Nothing to worry about.

Due to tumbling, it is unable to "fix" its dish to send and receive signals, right?

Someone is not getting their rice rations anymore.

Hmm.. X-37 good job.

reply to post by Phage


That's too bad.
Right here would be a good place to come down - over the Arctic Ocean.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by CatrionaBeldame

 

"Out of control" just means it's tumbling. It's in a fixed orbit at a high enough altitude so it will be up there for a very long time. Nothing to worry about.

edit on 12/12/2012 by Phage because: (no reason given)

So, essentially, since it is tumbling, it is just a hunk of metal in a fixed orbit, unable to do what it's supposed to be.

Out of control makes it sound like it is just going all over the place. But it IS in a fixed orbit...Just the satellite itself is basically tumbling around, while in a fixed orbit?

Makes sense enough to me. Still kind of interesting.

Not appearing on the tracker. Does that mean its down? Or the tracker doesn't work? Or someone doesn't want us watching it? ..... Or my internet connection is rubbish.

reply to post by RobbieK


Sometimes you have to refresh it. Same thing happened to me.

Originally posted by argentus
reply to post by Phage

 

So, is the mean orbit stable altitude-wise? Or is it degrading? I can't tell.

With that apogee and perigee I wouldn't expect it to come down for some time. Years.

The thing I'd worry about was the mechanism of failure. If it's just a stuck thruster, no probs. If it's gorked and trying to restart over and over, you might hope they didn't put in some sort of range safety package or that it really ISN'T a nuke, because then it'll be a lot more interesting.

reply to post by 1ibl2ibs


Yeah it came back after 10 mins or so. Was sitting waiting for breaking news lol.

The odds of it hitting anything populated are very slim. Lots of objects fall back to Earth. Most break up, some don't. I think in 2010, over 400 objects fell back to Earth. One moderately sized object falls back to Earth every week! They fall typically in broad, empty expanses. Oceans, deserts, tundra, etc. The vast majority of the planet is simply devoid of anything of note.

So I'm not too terribly worried about another random piece of space junk.. which is exactly what this is.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

Originally posted by Yngvarr
Sounds like the X-37B is doing it's job.

Is this that "kill Shot" I've heard about?

The X-37 is nowhere near the satellite. It's in the wrong orbit to get anywhere near it, and doesn't have enough fuel to get near it. If they were going to use it to try to do something against it, then it would have to have launched from Vandenberg.

Not to mention that the X-37 mission was planned long before this launch was known. It was delayed due to an engine malfunction with an Atlas that uses the same engine. They wanted to figure out what caused that problem before they launched the X-37. The original launch date was October.

I knew as I was typing my idiotic response Phage or Zaphod is going to nail my ass
on this one. Sure enough! Thanks for the explanation, I learned something new.

I'm watching This right now.

Originally posted by cartesia
would laugh if it was actually a nuclear weapon and they just put a bit of spin on it to make people think it was out of control

That is what I worry about.

The optimal altitude for an EMP is from 100 to 400km for a small weapon. The higher the altitude, the larger the footprint.

This Is running around 500 to 600km.

If it was a large nuke then it would be about right for the entire north American continent.

I've got a bad feeling about this..

Anybody know the point of this launch? The actual point that is.

AH maybe its a mrv with more than one warhead?
thats why the pieces are all in the same orbit....
maybe three bombs up there....how bout dem apples?

reply to post by Chansi3


It's going to fall over Texas. They have been getting all the good shows down there recently. Why can't we get any up here for a change?

Some parts land at 300 km eastward of the Philippines coast. That suck.

NK should come up and clean their mess.

Originally posted by Laxpla
Someone is not getting their rice rations anymore.

NK can barely feed its people. Launching crap into space to have it come back down.......

Originally posted by sonnny1

Originally posted by Laxpla
Someone is not getting their rice rations anymore.

NK can barely feed its people. Launching crap into space to have it come back down.......

NK people are doing okay, they get by on insects and human corpses in the more remote areas.

Are you sure the US officials didn't have their telescopes trained on the economy?

I wonder how many other satellites it will crash into before falling back to earth - if it even does.

This glorified solar powered beer fridge will burn away quite quickly I should imagine.

Just apply heat "ppppppoooooffff!" and the satelites gone.