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| 2008/2/20-22 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Consumer/TV] UID:49195 Activity:moderate |
2/20 Shot at satellite unlikely Wednesday: official - Yahoo! News:
http://www.csua.org/u/ktq
"The U.S. military does not anticipate trying to shoot apart a defunct
spy satellite on Wednesday due to rough seas ..."
Aha! Didn't know that all the Iranians and the NKs have to do to nuke
us is to wait for bad weather.
\_ So our Infallible Missile Defense system will always work
provided that:
1) The skies are clear.
2) We know the exact trajectory of the target.
3) The target is the size of a school bus.
I for one feel safer!
\_ Since this is not an emergency then why not wait until odds improve?
For instance, we know we *can* launch rockets during bad
weather but why when you can just try again when the weather
improves in most cases?
\_ Ummmm....
\_ Because the govt has been saying the first shot might miss the
target and they might need a second shot. Now if they don't take
the first early enough, there might not be another window for a
second shot.
\_ missiles cost money.. so why not put the odds in our favor
instead of messing around with clouds? also, the difference
here is that it contains poisons instead of an defensive
situation where just shoot it down asap is required.
\_ We clearly need to spend more money on this project. How
much have we spent on Star Wars so far?
\- the SDIO bought my ex-ex-ex-ex boss a VAX 11/780
\- the SDIO bought us a VAX 11/785 ... superstar!
we put it to good use.
\_ And if they took a shot during bad weather you'd be saying they
should stop cowboying and wait for good weather. There's just no
winning with some people.
\_ We clearly need to spend more money on this project. How
much have we spent on Star Wars so far?
\_ Well, this time the govt has already admitted that they are
cowboying by saying something like "first shot might miss and we
might need a second shot" in its announcement. So people
probably wouldn't complaining about that.
\_ No, that isn't cowboying. That is "this is something we've
never done before so we're doing it as well as we can and
giving ourselves the best odds of success". How is that
the same as cowboyism? They aren't taking the shot because
it would be fun. They are doing it because they don't want
to drop a bus load of hydrazine on anyone and they've also
probably already calculated that their snazzy spy sat. is
going to fall over unfriendly territory and don't want that
tech falling into foreign hands. |
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| www.csua.org/u/ktq -> news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080220/us_nm/usa_satellite_missile_dc;_ylt=AoRmTqBzmhqOhthpwNWInY6s0NUE Reuters Shot at satellite unlikely Wednesday: official By Andrew Gray Wed Feb 20, 1:06 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US military does not anticipate trying to shoot apart a defunct spy satellite on Wednesday due to rough seas in the Pacific Ocean, a senior military official said. WnmfDxJJQAXIr0F/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1203560154/L=CcSnYUWTcur83xETQI4Vvw CwRTfow0e8wroAC1BJ/B=fXk8HELEYuM-/J=1203552954757064/A=4919452/R=0/* The official said that assessment could change but forecasts indicated the Pacific would not be calm enough for the operation. Under the Pentagon's plans, a Navy ship will fire a missile at the bus-sized satellite. "We don't anticipate the weather being good enough today," said the official, briefing reporters at the Pentagon on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon said last week that President George W Bush had decided the Navy should try to shoot down the satellite because its fuel tank could leak deadly toxic gas if it enters the atmosphere and reaches Earth. Officials had said they would start looking for opportunities to shoot at the satellite after the space shuttle Atlantis ended its latest mission. The shuttle touched down in Florida at 9:07 am EST on Wednesday. The senior military official said the window for striking the satellite would last until around the end of this month, when the vehicle enters the Earth's atmosphere. "We'll make decisions each day as to whether we're going to proceed or not," the official said. The official said the operation would likely take place during daylight in the Pacific. The satellite is a National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft launched in December 2006 that stopped communicating within a few hours of reaching orbit, the Pentagon has said. Russia and China have both expressed concern about the operation. The Russian Defense Ministry said it could be used as cover to test a new space weapon. Washington has insisted the operation is purely to prevent people being harmed by the satellite's fuel tank, which contains the chemical hydrazine, if it falls to Earth intact. "We've been very clear about why the president made this decision," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The United States has strongly criticized China for firing a ground-based missile into an obsolete Chinese weather satellite in January 2007. Neither Washington nor Moscow has conducted an anti-satellite operation since the 1980s. The US Navy may make its first attempt to shoot down an errant spy satellite loaded with toxic fuel overnight on Wednesday in an area of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii, according to US officials and government documents. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. |