[blackdog]

Somethin is fishy here. Hydrazine is Alar, you know the stuff they spray on apples and fruit. It’s used in boiler water treatment and in rocket fuels. It’s not like it’s some rare compound we’re not exposed to already.

[azhenfud]

Why does NASA not prepare and send a shuttle to retrieve the thing? isn’t that what the shuttle’s inception was all about?

[Condor51]

.S. officials are studying the possibility of shooting down the errant Lockheed Martin intelligence satellite that was launched into space for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Set all Beebers to 'stun'.

[Pistolshot]

Since it is an NRO sat, and supposed to have been in a 'secret' orbit, you can bet there are some other things onboard that the DIA doesn't want to fall into the wrong hands.

Maybe they will dust off the ASAT program for a one-shot.

[poindexter]

One person was brushed on the shoulder by a piece of debris in 1997.

Yes, I remember the Clinton years...but it sure as heck wasn't just one, and the shoulder was just the start!

/hijack

[bill1952]

What is missing here is exactly how we would shoot down such a craft.

The last that I heard we no longer had the weapon systems to do this.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

The concern is that the spacecraft carries a full tank of hydrazine - a toxic propellant - that would have been used to reposition the satellite in orbit. Government analysts say the odds are that the tank will crack open during re-entry or than it will land in the ocean, which makes up 70% of the area where the breaking up satellite might land.

As we say in the industry, dilution is the solution to pollution.

[JustDoItAlways]

After the Chinese blew up their own satellite last year with a missile and we saw the huge and dangerous debris cloud that was created, you’d think our space guys would have a little more sense.

[montag813]

Can we steer it?

[montag813]

A senior official with insight into the planning says that a rumor that the satellite carried a small, nuclear generator is "absolutely and totally incorrect."

Sounds a bit like "Space Cowboys".

[chuckles]

If they blow it up, it will just make more space junk to plot for the future. It needs to burn up or be jettisoned into deep space.

[Hot Tabasco]

the impact could affect humans - perhaps kill some - out to a distance of "20-30 yards,"

...and if it hit somebody in the head it would knock them out cold.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

They want to create another satellite debris cloud, similar to the one the Chinese created?

[kalee]

ping

[Old Professer]

Can’t let those Chinese get one-up on us...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/18/china.missile/index.html

[RightWhale]

How does one shoot down a satellite?

[Just mythoughts]

BTTT for later find

[ZULU]

Simple. Guide it to fall down in Waziristan.

[Natural Law]

It would be nice to remind the ChiComms that we can shoot down any satellite up there.

[Yosemitest]

See the "USA 193 - imaged" forum thread

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