US Claims Satellite Shoot-Down Success

Readers of Slashdot last valentines day will remember discussing US Plans to Shoot down a damaged spy satellite. An anonymous reader noted that the US is reporting success last night, thus saving us from hydrazine exposure. Of course this makes me wonder- if it's this easy, wouldn't an international super power war pretty much immediately mean the downing of every satellite in orbit?

They need to be more careful.

[Rob T Firefly]

I took a look at the sky late last night, and it seems they took a chunk out of the Moon as well.

we know that they know that we know that ...

[mbaGeek]

the BBC talking heads (on the BBS world news this morning) were being generous when they said that there is "some discussion" about the United States' motives for the missile strike

three possibilities were given:

1. the US was showing that we have the ability to shoot down satellites (they described it as "shooting through the eye of a needle to hit the eye of a needle"),
2. we wanted to keep sensitive information out of the hands of our "opponents" (James Bond plot alert!), or
3. there might have actually been a health risk to letting the satellite reenter orbit (it should burn up now)

I'm going to choose all of the above! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Re:They need to be more careful.

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your lack of originality ... disturbing.

NASA Eclipse Time for Hawaii Missing

[shophreak]

I went to the NASA site yesterday to see the times for the full lunar eclipse and I noticed that the Hawaii time zone page was down. Coincidence?

Re:They need to be more careful.

[Dr. Cody]

* squinting my eyes *

"C... H... A??"

Re:They need to be more careful.

[morgan_greywolf]

Do not try to use the mod point -- that's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth: There is no mod point.

Re:priorities?

[KnightNavro]

It's not actually compulsory for super-powers to go straight to the nuclear option on day 1.

The nukes are typically reserved for the last day of war.

Ob: Marvin

[LMacG]

Where's the ka-boom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-boom!

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[Himring]

You couldn't be more wrong. This is obviously an effort by the U.S. military to cover-up the fact that they used Iron Man to shoot down the satellite....

After all...

[tunabomber]

If it was just about the hydrazine exposure risk, why didn't we just outsource the job to China and get it done for bottom dollar? Hell, under certain circumstances they'd probably have done it for free!

Re:we know that they know that we know that ...

[TheRaven64]

I'm going for option 4:

Some general woke up a couple of weeks ago and thought 'you know, we haven't shot at anything really fun for ages. I wonder if there are any satellites we could use for target practice.'

Re:in other news

[JamesP]

It wasn't an anti-satellite missile. It was an anti-missile missile [wikipedia.org],

I'm waiting for the anti-(anti-missile missile) missile

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not a rocket scientist and neither are you, but I have been told by a satellite guy that the hydrazine has to last for the entire duration of the satellite's mission, and so the tank is extremely well insulated.

A satellite guy told me the same thing. I think he worked for DirecTV.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[jstomel]

Please, when someone starts waving around their 8 inch hardon you don't counter by pulling out your 4 inch softie. If this was a dick waving contest we would have used a bigger dick.

Re:in other news

[illumin8]

It wasn't an anti-satellite missile. It was an anti-missile missile, and it only worked because of the decayed orbit of the satellite. This missile would not be able to touch a "working" satellite.

I read a really funny line on DailyKos yesterday about this:

The US Navy announced that due to bad weather, it will postpone the attempt to shoot down the impaired satellite until tomorrow at the earliest. Our zillion dollar "star wars" technology is clearly capable of stopping incoming missiles so long as: they come one at a time, are the size of a school bus, travel in orbits that have been calculated for months, don't deploy any decoys, and the weather is clear.

Re:in other news

[OeLeWaPpErKe]

Heyhey now, don't let something stupid like reality disturb anti-americanism ! That's just racist !

Pinata

[jbeaupre]

We have just witnessed the worlds most expensive pinata. With no candy. Next time they need to just pay a few bucks at the mercado, invite a few kids, and do it right.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[Anonymous Coward]

No. 4 should have been, To show everyone how good we are at friendly fire.

OK, people...

[Quiet_Desperation]

I've seen the term "dick waving" quite enough for one day.

Leave it to the Protocols of the Elders of Slashdot to put a negative spin on even this story.

OK, you want conspiracy?

Well, what *I* heard from my brother in law who knows a guy who reads the web site called thegovernmentislyingtoyou.org is that they are shooting down the spy satellite as a warning to the Space Station. It's basically NASA saying "We brought you into this world, and we can take you out of it."

The astronauts will be taken from the Atlantis and flown directly to the Vatican (the *real* Vatican hidden under the Antarctic ice pack) where they must restate their loyalty oaths to the New World Order, or face prolonged sentences in pain amplification devices at Gitmo. Those patches on the spacesuits are actually agonizers.

Seems those guys up there, especially when there's Russians on board, have been having whispered conversations (picked up by secret microphones placed on the ISS by the NSA, the DEA, the NRO, the Department of the Interior and the National Endowment for the Arts) involving phrases like "independent colony" and "breakaway republic in orbit" and similar subversive things.

Oh, and according to enterprisemission.com, smokingscalarweapon.com and the Facebook page of a former alien abductee, the window for shooting down USA 193 is defined by the eclipsed moon passing through the seventh house of Jupiter, and the alignment of Mars with a portion of the sky identified in ancient Vedic texts describing a nuclear war in India in 14,000 B.C.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[cayenne8]

"Everyone involved who has no connection to the military has been very vocal about the fact its a government coverup and there was little to no danger at all."

Oh c'mon everyone...at the very worst, the hydrazine was just an excuse to do something very cool....shooting a missle to blow up a failing satellite. Cool stuff, and no one got hurt.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[k_187]

seriously, people need to stop bitching and realize how awesome that was.

Re:priorities?

[Falkkin]

Slashdot needs a +1, Macabre mod.

They needed to remind ME of that

[wsanders]

Screw China, I'm a US taxpayer and I need to be reminded that the insane amounts of money being spent away by the military are at least useful for SOMETHING.

As a matter of fact, I expect to see some damned fine shooting stars in the next few days, or I'll be asking for my money back.

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[Arcane_Rhino]

...why blow it up spectacularly when you can just throw it away?

Is this a trick question?

Re:Wasn't that the whole point

[teabaggs]

Even our own media...
Always a reliable source of information pertaining to military operations.