AP: U.S. to shoot down errant satellite

[Little General]

Originally Posted by Sentinel of Northern Star

China used an ASAT weapon and shot down a satellite Jan last year.

And it pissed us off ...

At least ours is in a lower orbit and won't cause as much "space junk" floating around. That is if we even hit it...

[rumballs]

The attempt by the U.S. Navy to use an anti-missile missile to shoot down a potentially hazardous satellite will cost between $40 million and $60 million, Pentagon officials told CNN on Friday.

The missile alone costs almost $10 million, Lt. Gen. Carter Ham said at a Pentagon briefing. He declined to give an overall cost estimate.

wow.

[duhman]

Originally Posted by Sentinel of Northern Star

China used an ASAT weapon and shot down a satellite Jan last year.

As I remember it, China used a "killer satellite" to destroy another satellite. This was a huge escalation of space weaponry, but not very difficult once you have the means to put a satellite in orbit. Shooting down a satellite with a missile uses only the kids of weapon everyone already has, just with a great guidance system.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm convinced its just another government conspiracy like the moonwalk

I hope we use an H-bomb

[Corona Gigante]

Given that they must have known that this satellite had a limited life-span and would eventually fall back to earth, I wonder if they planned ahead and put some kind of a beacon on board the satellite that a missile could home in on?

[GOAT LOCKER]

Originally Posted by Sentinel of Northern Star

China used an ASAT weapon and shot down a satellite Jan last year.

The USA did the same in 1985... China's test was quite provacative, as the rest of the world has abandoned ASAT weapons to avoid a space arms race. It wouldn't surprise me someone had a covert program, but that the USA is having to scramble to modify an ABM system to kill this satellite pretty much shows that we have no ASAT weapon available.

Originally Posted by duhman

Shooting down a satellite with a missile uses only the kids of weapon everyone already has, just with a great guidance system.

Maneuvering a warhead in space is a significant challenge. Control surfaces don't work, so you have to depend on small, precisely controlled blasts of propellant and tiny course corrections to achieve a kinetic kill.

[str8edg]

Well here is an update... 20 miles south of me (Resolute Bay) on Devon Island a satellite crashed down on Sunday. A student of mine has pics and I am waiting for them... I don't know if it is THIS satellite but how many were scheduled to drop from the sky this week!! So the talk about it burning up... that was crap! It crashed VERY close to us!!

Anyway when I get the pics I will share them with you all

[MooseToga]

Originally Posted by str8edg

Well here is an update... 20 miles south of me (Resolute Bay) on Devon Island a satellite crashed down on Sunday. A student of mine has pics and I am waiting for them... I don't know if it is THIS satellite but how many were scheduled to drop from the sky this week!! So the talk about it burning up... that was crap! It crashed VERY close to us!!

Anyway when I get the pics I will share them with you all

Crazy. I highly doubt it's the same one, though, or you'd have the feds all over the place.

The obvious, scary question, then, is - who the hell did it belong to, and are they going to come looking for it?

[str8edg]

Everyone says that it is a spy satellite... we do have American scientists here right now... as for Feds. No one bothers us up here... we are not even protected by NORAD... we live above the ADIZ! But when I get the pics I will make my call... if it is covered in USA logos, then I will guess it was yours!

Do you guys want it back?

[M1903A1]

Originally Posted by str8edg

Everyone says that it is a spy satellite... we do have American scientists here right now... as for Feds. No one bothers us up here... we are not even protected by NORAD... we live above the ADIZ! But when I get the pics I will make my call... if it is covered in USA logos, then I will guess it was yours!

Do you guys want it back?

Sell it to the National Enquirer. They can put it to good use.

[str8edg]

I stand corrected. I was talking to the scientists last night. The best think I like about a small town!! They have seen the pics, I have not yet. They are not sure what it is, they said it could have been a satellite or a meteor. But it was a good sized something that crashed down just outside of town!!

I was completely wrong in my thoughts, I made the #1 mistake (again) of assuming!!

I will still post the pics when I get them

[MooseToga]

Yeah, a meteor sounds much more likely. I'd think that a satellite, even if it didn't burn up completely, would have been so melted and demolished that you probably wouldn't recognize it as one anyway.

[Corona Gigante]

Originally Posted by str8edg

They are not sure what it is, they said it could have been a satellite or a meteor. But it was a good sized something that crashed down just outside of town!!

One piece of advice, if you see a strangely colored mist drifting in from that side of town, I'd get the hell out of Dodge if I were you!!

[str8edg]

Originally Posted by Corona Gigante

One piece of advice, if you see a strangely colored mist drifting in from that side of town, I'd get the hell out of Dodge if I were you!!

I still don't have the pics, the student that has them is gone hunting this morning... that kind of stuff happens around here when the sun comes back

Sorry to jack the thread

[duhman]

The failing (falling) satellite has been described as being the size of a school bus. I think there will be a lot of stuff coming down like a shotgun spread. A lot of it will burn up. It's not due to hit the upper atmosphere until Mar. 6.