Some of you will be singing with me tonight.
Posted on 04/12/2012 4:42:54 PM PDT by gandalftb
North Korea launched a three-stage rocket from a missile base near the west coast city of Sinuiju today, claiming that it was carrying a weather satellite of purely civilian use.
Its projected trajectory was almost due south on a course 150 miles east of Shanghai. The second stage of the rock was to splash down east of the Philippines, which prompted Manila to cancel northbound flights as a precaution.
Initial network news reports said the rocket failed during flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
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>> “The NorKo commies are unlucky that Clinton is not the prez now.” <<
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Its OK, O’Bummer will be happy to deal in his second term.
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Face like a pancake.
Midnight Basketball - give them an NBA franchise to keep them busy.
Keep it simple, stupid.
Yup, pre-8080.
SEAL team?
(6th LD) N. Korea's long-range rocket crashes shortly after takeoff
SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) — North Korea defiantly fired off a long-range rocket Friday, but the three-stage craft crashed in pieces into the sea shortly after takeoff, South Korean officials said.
The launch is expected to draw international condemnation as it violated a U.N. resolution that bans the communist nation from any ballistic missile activity that can be used to develop missiles carrying nuclear weapons.
The Unha-3 rocket took off from the Tongchang-ri launch site at 7:39 a.m., but appears to have separated into several pieces before crashing into the sea a few minutes after takeoff, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
“South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe North Korea's missile launch ended in failure,” Kim said without providing further specifics, including how far the three-stage rocket traveled. “We will make an announcement later after making final confirmation.”
Military sources said the rocket appears to have landed in waters about 190 to 200 kilometers off South Korea's western port city of Gunsan, without the separation of its first and second stages.
Naval ships tracked the rocket's flight path, they said.
Japan's NHK reported that the North's rocket ascended about 400,000 feet (120 kilometers) above ground before being separated into four pieces and then crashing. The report cited a Japanese defense ministry official.
The North had said it would launch the rocket between April 12 and 16 to put what it claimed to be a satellite into orbit to mark the 100th birthday celebrations for Kim Il-sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
South Korea, the United States and other regional powers urged Pyongyang to call off the launch, denouncing it as a pretext to disguise a long-range missile test, banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Foreign news reports said the U.N. Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the launch.
Calling the rocket no different from a long-range missile, South Korea condemned the launch as a “provocative act” that threatens peace and security in Northeast Asia and constitutes a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution.
“North Korea fired a de-facto long-range missile which it claims carried a so-called working satellite at 7:39 a.m. today, but it failed,” Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, reading a government statement after President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency meeting with security ministers.
“Our government strongly condemns North Korea going ahead with the launch in disregard of the united calls from the international community that the launch plan be scrapped,” Kim said. “North Korea should take due responsibility for this.”
South Korea wants the U.N. Security Council to punish the North, officials said.
“Regardless of its success or failure, we urge the U.N. Security Council to take action against North Korea's rocket launch,” a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry said, on condition of anonymity.
A defense committee of South Korea's National Assembly will also hold an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. Friday to discuss the launch, a committee official said.
“After North Korea launched its long-range rocket, the defense committee was urgently convened,” the official told Yonhap News Agency by phone.
In Washington, the White House was preparing to issue a formal response to the launch.
Officials at both the State Department and the Defense Department said they have nothing to say for now regarding reports of the North's rocket launch. The White House is in charge of releasing the initial response of the U.S. administration, the source told Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea announced the rocket launch plan just weeks after it reached a deal with the United States under which it agreed to put a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests and halt uranium enrichment in exchange for American food aid.
Washington officials have warned Pyongyang that a rocket launch would be a dealbreaker, casting further clouds over the prospects of resuming the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
Experts in Washington said the launch has effectively suspended negotiations, perhaps for good.
“It is unfortunate that North Korea has decided to go ahead with this launch,” Gordon Flake, executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation told Yonhap News Agency. “With this action, the pathway back to negotiations has been effectively closed down, and the prospects for increased tension and crisis have increased dramatically.”
Marcus Noland, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said it was unfortunate the North “decided to defy the U.N. Security Council and world opinion in engaging in this provocative act.”
“The good news is that the launch may have been unsuccessful if it did indeed malfunction before completing its intended mission,” he said, adding that the failure proved North Korean missiles may be unreliable and hence may not pose an immediate threat.
“North Korea's ability to gain useful data and experience from this test may not be so great if the missile malfunctioned,” he said.
The North's nuclear and missile programs have long been a regional security concern. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
Some of you will be singing with me tonight.
What an absolute international humiliation.
Boy I sure will like to hear their bullshit spin which they are constructing as they speak; how they can go out and brief the international press corps this morning from now, with a straight face, when they know a number of them are launch veterans and aerospace journalists (professionals). My guess? They will skedaddle them out of the country ASAP. What I DO hope they do not do is blame it on the South or USA that it was somehow shot down in an aggressive act. Well, it's First Secretary Fat Boy's (28 years old) time to show what he is made of, on the world stage.
I’d hazard that Kim Jong-Un will have all but his most critical scientists shot for this. Their families will also be sent to their death camps.
And their press will declare the launch a great success and play a “live broadcast” on their news.
>> “Just wondering if Israel had ought to do with this?” <<
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Israel does business with the Norks.
They are probably en route to one of North Korea's pleasant gulags vacation resorts, where they will be allowed to engage in healthful gardening activities for the remainders of their short happy lives.
Here is my attempt to analyze what happened and the consequences.
Where’s the video of the guy demonstrating his home-made “sparkler”?
Good post, that answers a lot of questions, the flash was seen above and W of the DMZ.
They’ve been fueling for almost two weeks and I was really doubting the 15th that I had earlier posted on.
Once the tanks are topped off they have about 24 hours to light it off.
Good possibility there was a problem with the liquid fuel recirculation and coolinhg pumps, if so they would have to light within hours or watch it explode on the pad...with all those journalists around.
Something went way wrong with their timing.
This just in, haven’t plotted it yet:
Debris fell into the Yellow Sea at 124E 36N, about 5 minutes after launch.
The workers were probably so hungry they ate the wiring thinking it was spaghetti.
Perfect. I hope Tubby does rubout the rocket scientist before they do a debrief or ‘lessons learned’ and shortout the learning curve back to the start.
That’s roughly where the first stage was to land. Could be the 2nd stage didn’t light.
I didn’t see any control surfaces (fins) on the 3rd stage. Since it is very unlikely that they have developed a gimbaled (able to aim) solid fuel nozzle, the third stage was likely liquid fuel.
That would be a step backwards from the last launch and indicates this was a hurried launch.
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