US to shoot down disabled spy satellite

After all the criticism towards China, can anyone count all the hypocritical birds that can be hit with one stone with this news.



US: Broken satellite will be shot down By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago



The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a later Pentagon briefing.

The disabled satellite is expected to hit the Earth the first week of March. Officials said the Navy would likely shoot it down before then, using a special missile modified for the task.

Other details about the missile and the targeting were not immediately available. But the decision involves several U.S. agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Defense and the State Department.

Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China's anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.

The Associated Press has learned that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a Pentagon briefing later Thursday.




Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Re: China test ASAT II

Here's another report on the same subject. Now why didn't the Chinese think of this ? Put a sat in decline, declare to the world lives on earth are at risk only then proceeded to shoot it down to prevent danger. LOL

This is the part I love most ...
'...Asked why this intercept was any different than the Chinese anti-satellite test, Cartwright said the United States was notifying the international community beforehand and was conducting the intercept near the edge of space...'

The guy might as well have said it's different because 'Errr... because the Chinese test was done by well ... the Chinese while this one will be done by us.' :roll:



US to shoot down satellite: officials
A US defense official said Thursday that the Pentagon plans to shoot down a malfunctioning US spy satellite before it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere next month.

President George W. Bush has directed a US warship to shoot down an out-of-commission spy satellite before it crashes to Earth, senior US officials said Thursday.

"The president directed the Department of Defense to carry out the intercept" after concluding that it would help prevent loss of life from the uncontrolled descent, said Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey.

Jeffrey and other senior officials said the risk posed by an estimated 1,000 pounds of hydrazine, a toxic propellant, aboard the schoolbus-sized satellite was a key factor in the decision.

They denied that it was driven by the desire to protect the highly classified satellite's secrets, or that the shoot-down was intended to demonstrate a US anti-satellite defense capability.

China drew worldwide protests after it shot down a weather satellite in low Earth orbit January 2007.

The United States has never shot down a spacecraft in space before, but its missile defense system is designed to intercept incoming warheads in space.

"Our objective here was to reduce the risk. Could we reduce the risk to space platforms, to airborne platforms, and to terrestrial platforms -- the earth, cities, people, etcetera?" said General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A US Aegis warship will fire a single modified SM-3 missile at the spy satellite in hopes of scoring a direct hit on a tank carrying the hydrazine, Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He said the plan is to hit the satellite at a point in its orbit where any debris will quickly fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere over the ocean.

"And that's our objective: get rid of the hydrazine and have this fall in the ocean," Cartwright said.

The soonest that the intercept will take place is in three or four days, but the window will remain open for seven or eight days, Cartright said.

Three Aegis warships will be on station with two back-up missiles in case there is a problem with the launch of the first missile.

"We will have radars and space sensors pointed at the area so that we have some sense of whether we were successful or not," he said.

"In the case that we're not successful with the first shot, we'll reassess," he said.

But as the satellite moves across the Earth, the chances increase that an intercept will bring debris down over land, Cartwright said, adding "we're not going to shoot if that's the case."

"What we're looking for is to catch it here very close to the earth's surface. What we're shooting for, nominally, is about 130 miles (210 kilometers) up," he said.

He said about half the debris will come down in the first two revolutions if the intercept is successful, but it could take longer than a month for some of the smaller debris to come down.

"But it's a very finite period of time that we can manage, and it's in an area where we don't have satellites manned or unmarked; in other words, down very low," he said.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin said the space shuttle Atlantis will have finished its space mission and have landed before the intercept.

"This missile is designed, of course, for other missions, but we concluded it could be reconfigured, both the missile and other systems related to it, on a one-time reversible basis to do the shot," Jeffrey said.

Asked why this intercept was any different than the Chinese anti-satellite test, Cartwright said the United States was notifying the international community beforehand and was conducting the intercept near the edge of space.

Griffin said the Chinese test was conducted against a satellite in a circular orbit at around 530 miles (850 kilometers) of altitude, creating a debris field that could remain for decades over a large swathe of orbital space.

Gents I just saw this story on the news. I hope it makes a RED HOT subject in the forum.

Personally this will be a very big test for the US anti-missile system.

I'm going to transfer the last three post and start a new thread.

The US is planning to shoot down a wayward spy satellite perhaps as early as next week.

As a friendly reminder >>>>> Country bashing, insults and nationalistic chest thumping will not be tolerated in this thread. Please keep the tone of discussion civil.

Thank you!

bd popeye super moderator

I just hope this breaks open the door for continued R&D on China's ASAT capabilities meaning also a viable Chinese missile defense program.

AssassinsMace said:

I just hope this breaks open the door for continued R&D on China's ASAT capabilities meaning also a viable Chinese missile defense program.

Click to expand...

Yup, the Chinese should welcome this really though I doubt they'll admit it publicly.
It just makes it easier to do further tests which I'm sure they need.
Send one of those small cheap short-lived sat up there, I think the Chinese has some active programs in this area.
When their usefulness is up, make up some stories abt 'concern for possible danger' of debris, then shoot it down.

Well, I would suggest that China to join the US in shooting down that sattelite to preventing it from dropping on somebody's head, maybe you or me :rofl:

First off I just wanted to say why does the United States need to shoot this thing down if it still has 1000 pounds of propellent aboard? Couldn't they just use the propellent to put back in a higher orbit? I suppose that there could be some other problem with the satillite but that wasn't mentioned. So clearly this is just tit-for-tat with the earlier Chinese test. I doubt that we will hear the same criticism of this test out of the Chinese that we heard out of the Americans when the Chinese conducted their test earlier. It simply doesn't flow with the Chinese government's quiet "peaceful rise" policy/PR line.

In fact as someone already pointed out, the Chinese will probably welcome this because it will be seen as a tacit admission that space-weapons tests are acceptable. So thus we have begun the slippery slope to the weaponization of space.It was inevitable, and it has begun here. Really I don't see why the United States would do this; any sort of warfare in space works to the US's disadvantage because we are totally dominant right now (so any change in the status quo can only be bad for the US) and we have the most to lose in any space-warfare scenario.

Lastly, it would be highly embarassing if this test failed, which is a real possibilty.

The Chinese target satellite was at 860 kilometers up, that's not going to fool anyone on the basis that it has a decaying orbit or it will be a danger to anyone. That's way way up higher than the ISS by more than double.

Still, it will make the US look hypocritical as such details would not be of concern to the average person on Earth.

It will make a good demonstration of the SM-3 ABM capabilities though. But if it fails though it would be embarrassing.

The reason why the US has to shoot it down despite having propellant on board is that the satellite is no longer under control.

crobato said:

The Chinese target satellite was at 860 kilometers up, that's not going to fool anyone on the basis that it has a decaying orbit or it will be a danger to anyone. That's way way up higher than the ISS by more than double.

Still, it will make the US look hypocritical as such details would not be of concern to the average person on Earth.

It will make a good demonstration of the SM-3 ABM capabilities though. But if it fails though it would be embarrassing.

The reason why the US has to shoot it down despite having propellant on board is that the satellite is no longer under control.

Click to expand...

I read that the one ton hydrazine is in fuel tanks that will survive the re entry. Therefore, they are trying to destory it.

Area of Eeffect if the intercepttion misses and it falls will be limited to an area that will be no more then two football pitches.

Nonetheless, it is INDEED hypocracy on part of USA.

Sorry but the "peaceful rise" spin is an American interpretation suited for its own agenda. You don't think anyone can spin out contradictions from the US? So since the US has already conducted an ASAT test, does that mean the US is a hostile nation? And does that mean China's ASAT test was legitimate and not hostile since the US conducted one first? "Who made Huckabee?"

How is China's ASAT test seen as hostile since it only shot down one of it's own satellites. And don't forget the irony that China just shot down one of its own expired weather satellites. The US is shooting down a "hostile," "non-peaceful" military spy satellite.

Personally I don't care if the US conducts this. Just don't tell China not to further or conduct their own programs. Just as the US sees China as a potential adversary in the future and thinks it has the right to take steps, expect and accept China to do the same. No right-minded person or country is going to accept the condition that one country can make another out to be an antagonist and use that as an excuse for defensive or even offensive action while the other country has to play nice and don't do anything that might get the other side upset.