[kjam22]

Yes, shot down at 200K feet and 12K miles and hour...... If one was predisposed to shoot it down, why not sit in the middle of the swamp in FL and wait until it is making its approach at a more reasonable speed...

Because it's easier for a foriegn country to test systems designed to shoot down missles in international space than it is to smuggle the stuff into the Florida swamps.

[ContemptofCourt]

Then you are a tin-foiler, if you think that a foreign gov (limited to who? Russia and China) shot down the shuttle using a space-based weapon....

[lepton]

Because it's easier for a foriegn country to test systems designed to shoot down missles in international space than it is to smuggle the stuff into the Florida swamps.

There's just a wee bit of signature on a missile that would catch such a thing, not to mention the missile size, and radar reflection.