US to shoot down disabled spy satellite
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
- Start date
This test, or operation, was successful. The US certainly avoided major embarassment, and an element of the ABM system performed as planned in a real world situation for the first time.
$60 million and pride goes down the drain if they missed
I wonder why they didn't let CNN cover it...
Pointblank
Senior Member
Not likely. Spy satellite's are damned expensive. There has to be a very good reason why you want to blow up a brand new satellite, and just to test if your missile's work isn't one of them.
D
Deleted member 675
Guest
"Hostile" might be an exaggeration, but China's was unsettling for many countries because:
a) the US and Russia had imposed a moritorium on such tests previously
b) there was no notice of the test
c) there was no need to destroy the satellite other than to test the weapon
d) the debris from it will take a long time to fall into the atmosphere
In comparison it is estimated something like half of the debris from the US operation will fall into the atmosphere less than 24 hours afterwards. There was also a real need for the launch, either due to the toxic substances on-board or the security risk.
Quickie
Colonel
When things get premeditated, things may not be exactly what it's supposed to be - that including the spy satellite. For all we know, it may have included a remote controlled detonation device just in case things didn't work out as planned. Of course this is all just a hypothesis whithout proof but I just find it odd that after so many decades of sending satellites (spy satellites included) into space , they now suddenly find it necessary to shoot down a wayward satellite. More so when this happened after a similar related event occurred just about a short year ago.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Unsettling to countries that have satellites that may be used in an attack. Sounds like self-defense.
Where does it say China was a part of that agreement between Russia and the US. Did they consult China? No, so they can't claim something was broken.
The US knew China conducted two previous ASAT tests and said nothing.
Western experts, not the neo-con alarmists and anti-China haters, say the debris is negligible. It's over an year now and no such incident to report caused by the ASAT test. A year of debris to spread out and not ever a threat. You didn't know the orbit of the Earth is filled with natural garbage in the first place. As was pointed out by science, how do you think the Earth was formed?
And I read that the satellite was slowed down so the orbit would decay. So the hazard to the earth was man-made and intentional in the first place.
So China can't develop this for such an emergency of its own?
Pointblank
Senior Member
This satellite has over a ton of rocket fuel that is poisonous to people. They are aiming to hit the fuel tank to vent the fuel from the tank, not to shoot it down directly. That's why even if this was a successful intercept of the satellite, it might be a mission failure because they failed to hit the fuel tank. And right now, they have another two chances, 1 more missile onboard USS Lake Erie, and another on USS Decatur.