Wednesday, February 20, 2008

With all the hoopla surrounding this 'shoot the satellite' attempt, they better not miss.

14 comments:

VLW said...

Too bad I couldn't see that happening alongside the eclipse. Here's hoping they don't miss either.

Brian said...

I had an email conversation about with a buddy of mine in the Navy (who while not directly involved in the operation as far as I know, did know enough about the equipment involved and its capabilities to correctly ID the ship that would carry it out).

I had thought it was strange that this was being done so publicly--if the point was to send a message to China, Russia, or whomever about our capabilities then missing would look really, really bad.

The conclusion I reached was that this was not--even remotely--the first time DOD has taken out a satellite.

Just to be clear, my friend has said nothing to indicate that this was the case.

But he hasn't denied it either.

BarnGoddess said...

I missed it AND the eclipse! it is ice storming :(

Anonymous said...

With all of the stink the Chinese have made over this, we could`ve just let the satellite drop intact and blow hydrazine all over Tienamen (sp) Square.

They`ve got short memeories, as it was they who first destroyed an orbiting satellite. And further, they carelessly left it high enough in orbit to permanently add thousands of more pieces of debris in space to hit manned spacecraft.

At least we did it in such a way that all of the debris would quickly re-enter and burn up.

It`s also been fun to watch the conspiracy theorists go wild over this...

Kal said...

USA! USA! USA! USA!

Gino said...

but how do we know they really shot it down?
i'm with the assumtion that success would have been the story, even if they missed. only a lame administration would say otherwise.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't followed this story at all; but, now that I've heard about it after the fact, and after hearing it was a success, my main perception is this:

It's amazing what talented and committed professionals, primarily military I assume, can accomplish when they're left to do their job. If this had been some political football, with bozos from Washington getting in to the act, it probably would have been a fiasco.

Does anybody know otherwise.

VLW said...

It's on YouTube In grainy Department of Defense Night Vision!!! BOOM!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhdHkoal31o

YAY!!!

Gino said...

video can be faked.

VLW said...

That is true. Still, it would be cool if it were real. So you're not convinced? I am hoping they didn't miss because I heard that the satellite supposedly was carrying some really toxic waste.

Anonymous said...

I thought I was the one wearing the aluminum foil hat in this crowd ;).

Myself, I have no problem believing they took out this (or probaby other) orbitting debris. I agree with kingdavid, if it worked, it's because no politico got involved early enough to mess it up ;).

Gino said...

kr: maybe i'm the only one without the foil hat in this crowd.

vas: its not that i'm unconvinced, or convinced at all.
fact is: we only know because the govt says so, and everybody is buying it. this is, actually, the gist of my point. we are a govt trusting people, are we not?
maybe a bit too trusting.

VLW said...

True...

Anonymous said...

kr: maybe i'm the only one without the foil hat in this crowd
which is of course the hallmark of a confident conspiracist ;) ... I assume you said it in a spirit of joking self-awareness!

so, do you think the moonlanding was faked too? could be, could be ... but ... I don't think so ;). And I'm the one who thinks the WTC was a setup. Where does that leave you ;)?!

(Of course, I know people who worked at JPL, so I am biased on space issues. The military is probably not so full of people who are focused on finding and presenting the scientific truth no matter what personal/public cost, eh? Sigh.)