[johnbryanpeters]

And some vehicles are designed to be maintained while in orbit and some aren't.

 

[LordOpie]

I hear what you guys are saying, but it sounds like that it's a failed computer... just swap it out.

Also, if they can't fix any satellite at any orbit, then how can we even dream of a station on Mars or one of the moons here, Saturn or Jupiter?


I call shennanigans and claim that they could fix this satellite, but would rather use it for target practice. Which is perfectly fine by me if that's that case as we need to continue improving military technology.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I hear what you guys are saying, but it sounds like that it's a failed computer... just swap it out.

Also, if they can't fix any satellite at any orbit, then how can we even dream of a station on Mars or one of the moons here, Saturn or Jupiter?

I call shennanigans and claim that they could fix this satellite, but would rather use it for target practice. Which is perfectly fine by me if that's that case as we need to continue improving military technology.

Perhaps, with your clearly evident expertise, you should seek a position in the industry and save us ignorant taxpayers some money.

 

[dan wask]

The satellite has the pictures of the alien space craft which fired both the laser killing JFK, and the one that shot down the twin towers. It also has the coordinates to the location of DB cooper's treasure. It's all a big cover up people, OPEN YOUR EYES

 

[jdcamb]

Because Kurt Russell wouldn't do the movie unless they stopped being pussies and shot it down with a missle. So they decided to step up to the plate and show some sack... The alternate ending has him riding it down like a cowboy after the missle fails.

 

[LordOpie]

Dan, are you saying there was a third shooter?


What about that super powerful laser that someone posted about? Couldn't they target the fuel tanks with that. Even if it's only a femto-second (?) burst, it's like 300 gigawatts... shouldn't that blow it up?

Plus, how cool would that be?

 

[syadasti]

What about that super powerful laser that someone posted about? Couldn't they target the fuel tanks with that. Even if it's only a femto-second (?) burst, it's like 300 gigawatts... shouldn't that blow it up?

Plus, how cool would that be?

A laser would get diffused by the atmosphere so it wouldn't do anything. I bet we have spy satellites with weapons on them - the Russians have had and tested them in space. We just want to test the terrestrial systems like the Chinese did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaz

In addition to reconnaissance equipment, the Almaz had an on-board cannon derived from the 23mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon (other sources say it was a Nudelmann NR-30 30mm gun). Salyut 3 conducted a successful test firing on a target satellite. OPS-4 featured two unguided missiles instead of the aircraft cannon.

 

[dan wask]

Dan, are you saying there was a third shooter?

3rd? Lemme tell you, there were four. There had to be a shooter for every one of JFK's testicles.

 

[MTBstud12]

Couple questions:

1. How come they don't send satellites with a self-destruct option?

2. If the boat launched missles miss, then that's a waste, so why not put a manual guidance system with a small fuel supply (to navigate in space) on a missle so they can pull right up to the satellite and then manually detonate?

Idea = Common sense. US Govt. = Questionable

 

[fluff]

It's just to prove they can, given how pissed the US was about China doing it, I can see no other reason. I doubt it's shielded sufficiently to re-enter (as it was never gonna be designed to do so) so it would destroy itself anyway.

Of course, I could be completely wrong; I'm no rocket scientist, just a cynic.

 

[MTBstud12]

Dan, are you saying there was a third shooter?


What about that super powerful laser that someone posted about? Couldn't they target the fuel tanks with that. Even if it's only a femto-second (?) burst, it's like 300 gigawatts... shouldn't that blow it up?

Plus, how cool would that be?

Maybe we could see it. They should do it at night. Pure entertainment

 

[BMXman]

And don't forget it's going to cost $60 million to shoot it down!


Linky

American tax dollars hard at work!!....D

 

[Reactor]

As far as the "games" being played with bogus test results and poor reporting, it's all just politics and only one of the reasons I'm no longer working in the defense machine.

I'm more aware of what happens than most people.

 

[splat]

As far as the "games" being played with bogus test results and poor reporting, it's all just politics and only one of the reasons I'm no longer working in the defense machine.

I used to work for the DoD in the DLA , and it is amazing how some stuff that would be wide open in basic "for Official Use Only" That had been like that for years , would suddenly Become "Classified " Or "Secret " or even "Wet Shred" when Something happened.

 

[Reactor]

I used to work for the DoD in the DLA , and it is amazing how some stuff that would be wide open in basic "for Official Use Only" That had been like that for years , would suddenly Become "Classified " Or "Secret " or even "Wet Shred" when Something happened.

I was "Special Projects" Everything was shredded to the consistency of talcum powder, and then re-bagged and burned, regardless of the supposed classification level.

 

[BikeGeek]

I used to work for the DoD in the DLA , and it is amazing how some stuff that would be wide open in basic "for Official Use Only" That had been like that for years , would suddenly Become "Classified " Or "Secret " or even "Wet Shred" when Something happened.

I knew our General was power mad when he realigned every program into one system so he could move money around as he saw fit and still adhere to Federal Acquisition Regulation. To top it off, he then classified the budget as Top Secret.

 

[Changleen]

It has nothing to do with the payload and everything to do with politics.

This is 'catch-up with China' day, otherwise known as an escalation of the space arms race. Great stuff.

 

[BigMike]

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT! ...... welll.... maybe

Navy gunners in the Pacific were watching the sea and sky Wednesday, waiting for perfect conditions to take a kill shot on an errant satellite 150 miles above them.

They have just a 10-second window to fire, a Pentagon official said, and may not be able to take their shot on their first opportunity at 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

"It's not enough to say 'no,' but we're watching the weather," the official told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's on the margin."

The cruiser USS Lake Erie will get one 10-second window each of the next nine or 10 days to fire an interceptor missile that will destroy the faltering spy satellite before it can tumble to Earth and -- possibly -- release a cloud of toxic gas.

The Pentagon said the window of opportunity to strike the 5,000-pound satellite opened Wednesday, when the space shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida. The Pentagon wanted to be sure the shuttle would not be struck by any debris from a destroyed satellite.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/20/satellite.shootdown/index.html?eref=rss_tech

 

[LordOpie]

Tonight's also a lunar eclipse, so I hope they don't accidentally shoot the moon.

 

[BMXman]

Tonight's also a lunar eclipse, so I hope they don't accidentally shoot the moon.

Hey who let Cheney in here!...WTF grab him....D

 

[N8 v2.0]

awesome!

 

[LordOpie]

Hey who let Cheney in here!...WTF grab him....D

man, you KNOW he's gonna be touching himself tonight.

*shudders*

 

[ridiculous]

You have to understand that this satellite is going about 9km/s, or about 32,000km/h, in other words, its hauling ass. Also, the missile will probably be going around 3-4km/s, trying to hit the satellite thats going in the opposite direction, 300 miles away.

So its equivalent to firing a bullet from 300 miles away and hitting another bullet going in the opposite direction...and that is quite hard to do, even with the best calculations there are far too many variables affecting both trajectories that it is highly probable that they will fail.

To make this even harder both ground to space and air to space missiles designed for this rely on kinetic energy only to destroy their intended target. So cut them some slack 8 in 10 aint bad.

 

[urbaindk]

Here's a pretty cool site about the spy satellite and space stuff in general.

http://spaceweather.com/

 

[I Are Baboon]

He shoots, he scores!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/21/satellite.shootdown/index.html

I want to see explosion pics.

 

[syadasti]

He shoots, he scores!!

So did they really shoot it down with the SM-3 or did they take it out with another satellite after a miss

We've spent over 5 billion on space weapon systems alone during the Reagan Administration and Bush revived the program in 2001:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1044-us-revives-armed-satellite-plan-.html

 

[syadasti]

We have linked threads in progress...

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197228

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7250916.stm

Powerpoint presentation by DHS/FEMA available:

http://88.80.13.160/wiki/US_spy_satallite_shootdown_briefing

 

[urbaindk]

video of "the death star explosion" via CNN. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/02/21/pentagon.sat.shoot7a.cnn

Pretty darn cool.

 

[N8 v2.0]

click-click


BOOM!

 

[urbaindk]

click-click


BOOM!

12 guage or 30-ott-6?

 

[Transcend]

According to a few news networks yesterday, it isn't the fuel that's really the issue, although it is frozen and WOULD survive re-entry. It reacts like chlorine gas in the human respiratory system.

The big deal is the top secret imaging sensor on board. It is one of the new classified ones that is something like 4x more sensitive than the ones on a keyhole bird.

 

[Dartman]

The Chinese angle on it was interesting.

The test their system so we show them we can do it too.

There is a definite sabre rattling component to this story.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

He shoots, he scores!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/21/satellite.shootdown/index.html

I want to see explosion pics.

They're pretty impressive. BikeGeek FTW for predicting it'd work.

 

[kev211]

According to a few news networks yesterday, it isn't the fuel that's really the issue, although it is frozen and WOULD survive re-entry. It reacts like chlorine gas in the human respiratory system.

The big deal is the top secret imaging sensor on board. It is one of the new classified ones that is something like 4x more sensitive than the ones on a keyhole bird.

No. The biggest reason they did it was because it showed the rest of the world that we are the US and we can shoot sh!t out of the sky . The top secret imaging thing is just another excuse that the government was telling people so they wouldnt think that billions of dollars werent being spent on pyrotechnics. The sensor would have been incinerated on reentry. The real reason was just to chow Americas fire power. "We have big missiles we can shoot out of orbit to blow up fast moving objects... Do you?"

 

[ridiculous]

No. The biggest reason they did it was because it showed the rest of the world that we are the US and we can shoot sh!t out of the sky . The top secret imaging thing is just another excuse that the government was telling people so they wouldnt think that billions of dollars werent being spent on pyrotechnics. The sensor would have been incinerated on reentry. The real reason was just to chow Americas fire power. "We have big missiles we can shoot out of orbit to blow up fast moving objects... Do you?"

This could be the case as last year the chinese also developed a missile that could shoot a satilite down. Since then AMOS and others have been busy tracking the inventory of our satilites and probably making sure our capabilities are still there.

 

[ridiculous]

Here are the pics of the US Navy shooting down the satillite we were talking about a while back.

Pretty badass, unfortunately there are no pics of impact.