Hey Patrick! I figured they wanted to hit it low, I understand about wanting to get that hydrazine to burn up instead of exploding low in the atmosphere over populated areas. I'm just really curious about how large the warhead is. It could cause complications, any idea of what type of rocket they're using? I'm not surprised that there are conspiracy theories about this. We've had anti-sat missiles in development since Reagan was president. The military likes to use what it's got not to mention with China, N.Korea, and possibly Iran now in or close to being in space it makes sense to do a live fire test of the technology. This happens to be a great opportunity to do it in public to show said countries what we can do to their satellites without the outcry that China faced. Just a thought! Did you see that Nova program? I listened to it at work, and just finished watching it online. Quite amazing, I love how big they dreamed in the 50's and 60's nothing was impossible just a problem to be solved. We really need that driving spirit again in America and not just about space but everything. Howard PS; enjoying those post storm skies?? --- Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:
This is being discussed on another list I'm on. The list is full of professional astronomers so I'm surprised to see "conspiracy" (over why "they" want it shot down) being mentioned there.
But to your question, it looks like the plan is to hit it when it's so low that, unlike the Chinese fiasco, the pieces will decay quickly.
patrick
On 15 Feb 2008, at 00:57, Howard Jackman wrote:
It's uncanny how similar ths is to a recent Nova program, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/
Very interesting! I'd never heard of these programs, not surprising since they were conceived of before I was ;-P I was very impressed with the Soviet station. I had no idea they had an active manned orbiting recon station, well besides Mir that is. They had a 23mm cannon on theirs, would've been useful now. Quick question, how is this different from what the chinese did awhile ago? I understand this satellite is in a decaying orbit but won't this missile impact and explosion possibly cause some debris to accelerate up into a higher orbit and become nuisance trash?
Howard
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