15
Feb
2008
Pentagon is Going to Shoot Down a Malfunctioning Spy-Satellite
Posted by marko as News
American defense ministry Pentagon announced that they are going to destroy a falling spy-satellite with a tactical missile. Pentagon released this news yesterday and it has been confirmed by the president George W. Bush. The reason for destroying the satellite is that it is carrying chemicals that are dangerous to humans. By shooting a tactical missile Pentagon is trying to make sure that the satellite will drop to ocean and that the dangerous chemicals will burn in the atmosphere.
The satellite Pentagon is going to shoot down is owned by National Reconnaissance Office and it was launched in December 2006. Soon after the launch the contact was lost and the satellite became useless. Because the satellite has a mass of two tons and only one ton would burn in the atmosphere, Pentagon is forced to destroy the satellite above the atmosphere.
Even though some folks claim that the real reason behind shooting is that the satellite contains classified information. According to Pentagon this is not the reason because the possible classified information would be destroyed in the atmosphere anyway.
According to Pentagon, the possible “window” for shooting the satellite will probably open in 2-3 days and will last for about one week. The tactical missile will be shot from a ship. An interesting point is that one year ago China did exactly the same, which United States strongly criticized.
If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Newsletter.This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com! Share This
6 Responses
beanieville
February 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
1Hi friend, we read and like your post.
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marko
February 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am
2Nice to hear, mate!
tOM
February 18th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
3This is hard to believe. There is so much space junk up orbiting our planet, this will problem become a yearly if not monthly event in the future! Thanks for adding me as a friend at Blog Catalog!
Tom
marko
February 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
4You’re right. It is awesome how much there is junk orbiting. Some time ago I came across with a site that shows an animation of the situation up there, and there really is A LOT of junk. I cannot remember the url of the site, but if I find it, I’ll link it here.
Thanks for stopping by Tom!
vrtulobjeq
February 28th, 2008 at 4:12 am
5Although this sad event has taken place, there were heaps of chat about, that the real intention of doing this were to test the missile defense shield, which seemed to ring in the affirmative in most newscasts. So this now seems to have dupliticiously set a precedent with China who recently followed the same action. These events make both countries guilty of nothing short of intentionally flicking a cigarette butt out the window of traveling car. This now makes me very curious to see how other countries will behave when their sattelites are doomed?
Perhaps we ought to sing the Paul Butterfield song “What Goes Up Must Come Down…?
marko
February 28th, 2008 at 9:54 am
6Right on, vrtulobjeq, I heard these same comments in BBC news few days ago. Naturally United States denies this, but one reason behind the shooting of the satellite might be the need to show the power and test the defense shield. Anyhow, this is just speculating. thanks for your interesting comment!
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