Posted on 02/20/2008 9:07:08 AM PST by maquiladora
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy gunners in the Pacific were watching the sea and sky Wednesday, waiting for perfect conditions to take a kill shot on an errant satellite 150 miles above them.
hey have just a 10-second window to fire, a Pentagon official said, and may not be able to take their shot on their first opportunity at 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
"It's not enough to say 'no,' but we're watching the weather," the official told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's on the margin."
The cruiser USS Lake Erie will get one 10-second window each of the next nine or 10 days to fire an interceptor missile that will destroy the faltering spy satellite before it can tumble to Earth and -- possibly -- release a cloud of toxic gas.
The Pentagon said the window of opportunity to strike the 5,000-pound satellite opened Wednesday, when the space shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida. The Pentagon wanted to be sure the shuttle would not be struck by any debris from a destroyed satellite.
But the official said conditions have to be perfect, and that was not the case Wednesday with swells in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii running slightly higher than Navy would like.
The National Weather Service forecast 12- to 15-foot seas west of Hawaii Wednesday with a storm developing in the area.
The United States plans to spend up to $60 million to try to destroy the satellite even though there is only a remote possibility the satellite could fall to Earth, survive re-entry and spew toxic gas in a populated area, said James Jeffrey, deputy national security adviser.
"The regret factor of not acting clearly outweighed the regret factor of acting," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
15ft seas (and accompanied winds) are not exactly ripples in a pond.
I hope that if anyone ever launches an attack against us, it’s done in good weather.
That makes two of us. The Chinese are watching this with great interest. They successfully shot down a weather satellite in January 2007.
Sure hope the Chinese first strike doesnt occur during high swells.
The US shot down a satellite in 1985...
"KABOOM!"
"Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast which is already in progress..."
I would imagine there is a system already made to immediately fit in the cargo bay of the shuttle similar to the patriot launcher, besides we have aircraft like the Aurora that can get up real close, the bottom line is we do not want to tip our hand with our best or latest technology. Save the good stuff for when we really really need it.
September 11, 2001...was a fairly nice day, IIRC.
No, but the platform is not a 65 ft yacht, either. Give me a break.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/aegis.htm
The AEGIS weapon system is billed as the most capable surface launched missile system the Navy has ever put to sea. Its weapons can be trained on targets at a wide range of altitudes from wave top to directly overhead, and is capable of engaging anti-ship cruise missiles and manned aircraft flying in all speed ranges from subsonic to supersonic. The AEGIS system has been employed in all environmental conditions, having both all-weather capability and the abilitt to operate in chaff and jamming environments.
Now that is what I call old school!!!
They probably have a number of deep water recovery ships in the area just in case....
Really, what they need to say is yes, we are testing technolog; good to be prepared in the event of large incoming asteroids.....
I got the ugly picture loud and clear.
Will the bad guys launching missiles at us wait for perfect conditions so that we can more easily shoot their missiles down?
Looks like this bird with a little nudge could land on Iran.
Yes, the weather was excellent on 9/11.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to launch the shuttle with some kind of missile on board...?
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On any travel mission, you only send out (or up) what you need. A kinetic missile is all we need.
“Navy gunners in the Pacific were watching the sea and sky Wednesday, waiting for perfect conditions to take a kill shot...”
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I was talking with the guys at work, speculating that the “satellite” was sent up SPECIFICALLY for this kill shot. And since this will be the one and only chance we have, we want to know EVERYTHING about the flight, the stability, the tracking to the target, etc, both visually and electronically in case a fault or failure occurs.
bkmark.
I doubt it but the more important factor here is what we are showing the world. The message is something like:
“Yeah China shot one down before us. We don’t care about doing that as a test. But when we WANT to shoot one down we simply use the same missiles that HALF OUR NAVY SHIPS CARRY AROUND ALL THE TIME. Hah! Suck on that chumps!”
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