Space Junk
 

Old news: 5,000lbs US Satellite fails in orbit and is falling back to earth.

Today's news: The Pentagon is planning to blow it up with a missile before then.

Why?


*sniff sniff* What a guy! Trying to keep us all safe like that. I'm sure the idea of all the secret spy toys on that bird landing in say the middle of China had no effect on that decision at all.

How is that tin-foil hat of yours?

Gee if only we had that missle shield in place, we wouldn't have to worry about pesky falling satellites.

So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

I want to go fly above the atmosphere and blow stuff up! That sounds like fun!

I wonder if we'll get the same kind of debris show like at the end of the movie "Independance Day"? That would be cool!

Calling Euro's Sky Lab Crew.......

OK, I have to admit: every time I see this thread title, I think of a naked astronaut. Check out the space junk!

ok, so correct me if Im wrong but isnt this sort of why they built shuttles in the first place? to go up and retrieve or repair this sort of thing? not that Im not a huge fan of blowin stuff up just cuz...but, as memory serves, there is currently a shuttle in space...space being sorta where this non-op orbiting death object is?

yes?


/shrug

No, it's not nearly big enough and if the explosion is efficient enough most pieces won't be big enough (plus the odds of it reentering where you'd be able to see are relatively small).

More than preventing acquisition of top secret parts (probably not much since I imagine the good stuff is software based and I'd imagine they have ways of "self destructing" that) is the opportunity to practice shooting satellites. If nothing else it is reasonably well timed opportunity to show the Chinese we can still do it too (they shot one a couple years ago).

12345? That's the same combo I have on my luggage! Remind me to get that changed...

This is actually old news. This satellite malfunctioned a while ago and it's only now that it's been officially admitted to. But no, it has nothing to do with securing sensitive hardware. The full tank of propellant has always been a worry and the concern is that on burn up the tank might possibly make it through and rain fuel down. It's remote but possible and so they're taking measures to avoid the problem before it happens.

As for the shuttle, you're exactly right, but thank all of the space critics who cried for restricting it's use after Challenger and Columbia. Thanks to all of the belly aching it's basically a glorified commuter bus to the station and back now.

The new news is that they're shooting it down.


I happened to hear an awesome sound bite on the radio today from the press conference (which I can't seem to find online). James Cartwright was trying to stress that yes, even if they didn't shoot it down, going through the atmosphere would take care of any information anyone could try to glean from the craft itself, "with the heating, and the burning..." The way he said it sounded a lot like this guy.



The only thing he didn't say was "with the GLAVIN!!!"

I'm pretty sure it would be impossible for the current mission to be diverted to retrieve the satellite (assuming it is small enough to fit inside if they did). The shuttles aren't exactly carrying a lot of extra fuel for spontaneous side trips.

I'd also think that 120 miles up is a bit lower than they'd be comfortable doing a long stay as that's about (I believe) 200 miles lower than the shuttle's normal low earth orbit.

And considering how stupidly expensive shuttle launches are it is probably still cheaper to just blow it up and start over with a new rocket launched satellite.

Yeah, sure Mr. Cartwright. *honk* *honk* tell me another one....

They do not want this thing recovered (and with good reason)

Time to call up the boys


(But Honestly, I was just thinking about DEVO;) )

And Monty Python?

visibile € mojo
:iSm:

Are you standing or sitting? It is hard to tell which one is supposed to be you. I always hate "left to right" when you have people sitting and standing.

That's pics got Boss Radio, Strangler Lewis and Euro in it.

So did 'GD' really stand for Gumby Defence, or was it perhaps for something with a bit more girth?

Holy crap! That newspaper isn't a joke?

I'm dying here. Best laugh ever. Holy hell! :snap:

Wait, so that IS Boss Radio? Was he using a fake name?

Ahh, now I know where Boss is at in the pic... I know where Senor Meinke is for sure.

And by the way, you guys are all pretty much my heroes for making the paper with a stunt like that.

That is pretty damn funny.

Am I the only person here who hasn't met Boss Radio?

I feel better knowing there are patriots with fishing nets looking out for my safety. Danke.

Actually, I think only a few have, though I am certain of it. I know him because, technically, he is my boss. And he is the boss of a few others here.

No, that's his real name, although I think it has been officially changed to what it is now (which is or was his middle name). I still call him by his former name and do a double take when I hear it as it currently stands.

Ahh, at last we see the real beauty of the government's satellite shoot down plan. They are going to take a shot at it tomorrow night (coincidentally during the lunar eclipse). They have carefully arranged it so that any debris will fall harmlessly to earth in an area of no real importance: Canada.

Interesting...

As long as they duck, they should be fine.

It looks like the shootdown has been postponed due to weather:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23253805/

I guess that argues against this being a secret anti-satellite test.

What good would an anti-sat system that only works in good weather be?

Unless that's just what they want us to think....


(Of course we all know the real reason is that they figured out it's during a total lunar eclipse which would allow for people getting better pictures and they don't want that...... )

Well, either way I look at it, I wouldn't be able to see any of it, based on how frigging cloudy it is here in Utah. Bleh.

****, now the Russkies know to nuke us on a rainy day. Our whole missile defense has been revealed at its weakest point. If only we could invent mechanical dramamine.

Well it's done according to MSN; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23265613

It sounds like you should look up for the next 40 hours for falling debris?! I guess they really don't have a clue where the parts will land.


Edit: It's fixed now, sorry!

cl -
It says "page not found".
???

Sorry about that:blush:

:argghh:< Yay it be fixed, it be!
:decap:

So the shot went off after all.

It's good to know we've still got some right sneaky bastards working on our side.

Pretty cool to hit that sucker dead on on the first shot.

I, for one, happen to agree with the Chinese and Russians on this one, though. I am certain this was an excuse to demonstrate some military tech to them.

I see no problem with that. China shot down one of their own not too long ago, and while we whined about it we took no official action. It's just business as usual.

I have an interesting coworker with a varied past...worked in aerospace among other things...and he says his secret contact assures him this was purely to test out our new defense systems.

If the reports that the missile hit the tank are true, I would say that the test was a resounding success!

Be careful what you repeat CP or someone here might label you as part of the "Tin Hat" crew.

Ooohhh... I think I touched a nerve. There must have been some truth to my comment :D

If there really was a missile.
If there really was a tank
If there really was a missile that really hit the tank that was really there.

And if you can call spending $10,000,000 of taxpayer money to blow up $1,000,000,000 worth of taxpayer property a success then yes it was a success but I'm not sure how many more of these successes we can take.

But it was a "$1,000,000,000 worth of taxpayer property" crap that didn't work anyway. :rolleyes:

This is just another reason for other countries to hate America. :rolleyes: