Posted on 02/19/2008 5:54:49 PM PST by prairiebreeze
Why, ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer, of course.
:^D
So, it’s not as represented then? Good catch there MM.
got to get out the spottin scope.
Maybe if you are in Hawaii. Even here it is dicey whether it can be seen or not. Supposed to be low on the horizon during the optimal orbit. Ships are standing off to the southwest a few hundred miles I think.
The Navy was doing it three years before the Air Force.
Haha.. if it were plutonium, that would create quite a stir. I doubt we’d be admitting that, if it were the case. I’ve read elsewhere the fuel they’re concerned about is Hydrazine.
Don't even break a sweat.
And, if they don't get it through that window, Gates said he just might shoot it down while on the road.
Maybe the satellite has an exhaust pipe. :-)
What is the fuel on board the satellite? Is it plutonium? If it is, that would be damn good reason to shoot it down so it all burns up in the atmosphere on reentry.
I didn’t fully grok this story until you used the “P-word.”
It actually is plausible that this is very dangerous s*** on board. “Fuel” sounds like kerosene or hydrazine, but this is a well-protected nuke on board.
Or not.
?
You win, just *what* was the Navy doing 3 years before the Air Force? : )
Swimming?
Chasing wimmin?
Driving boats in the desert (been there, done that BTW)
You are probably correct. It's a spy sattelite, and thus a significant portion of it's orbit takes it over "enemy territory". Regardless, we want it incinerated or at least blown to smithereens before some ChiCom, Putin-lover or towel-head gets his hands on it.
It's purely chemical, hydrazine.
"The first and only ASM-135A launch against an actual target satellite took place on September 13, 1985, when F-15A 77-0084 of the 6512th Test Squadron stationed at Edwards AFB took off from Vandenberg AFB and zoom-climbed up to 80,000 feet and then launched the ASAT against the Solwind P78-1, a gamma ray spectroscopy satellite that had been launched in February of 1979. Both the first and second stages fired successfully, and the miniature kinetic kill vehicle separated and homed in on the satellite, destroying it upon impact.
But then Ronny RAygun was the Prez & wanted folks to know American tech was up for the challenge.
The first test of an ASAT weapon was in the 50s - don't work too well, the RADAR system sucked swamp water.
Google Anti-satelloite and choose the Wiki, recently updated, it has a lot of info.
Me, I think the Navy wants to show the PDRNK punks that if they get too frisky, they can & will be slapped down.
Alaska is also the host to a squadron of interceptor missles. Who says the Guard isn't pulling thier weight? The local ANG folks are the primary workforce on this system.
Hydrazine
Someone posted this link on another thread. It is a pretty cool site. You can track the spy satellite from this page.
Freeper NavycanDo posted the link and said this:
“On it you can track the flight of the USA 193 Spy Satellite (the one the Navy plans on shooting down), and all the other satallites as well, including the Space Station, Space Shuttle and even planets. You are supposed to be able to put in you location and it will tell you what is overhead and when, but I’m still learning how to do that.”
Hat tip to NavycanDo. Can’t wait to explore the site. Thanks!!
Hydrazine.
I’ve worked on telecom satellites for a few years. The most dangerous task I’ve performed was to put fully fueled satellites onto the launch vehicle adapters. You get a little nervous when you think about what you’re dealing with.
Would it really be too hard to rig these satellites with a small explosive so we don’t have to spend 10 or 15 million shooting them down?
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