Sat, 12 Sep 1998 23:54:00 -0400 (EDT)
(found this old item on Google)
On the recent reports (U.S. Senate / U.S. State Department / South Korean
foreign ministry), I wonder if this might be the explanation: The North
Korean rocket was a satellite launch attempt that failed to get anything
into orbit. The launch itself, however, would be desribed as a satellite
launch attempt, and not a ballistic missile test (for whatever difference
that makes). This might be significant in policy analysis and response.
So the report that “it was a satellite launch, but the satellite isn’t
working” really means that the event was an orbital shot but the rocket,
not the payload, failed. This would be consistent with NORAD claiming
nothing in orbit, and if the U.S. really tracked a 3rd stage firing that
was consistent with a launch attempt, that information could have gotten
blurred as it was passed to non-technical people and mixed with the
North Korean description of events. Though I really don’t know, of
course.
— Sean Sullivan
I live in Alaska and there is positively zero coverage about this. Again only FR has the facts and news, thanks for being around and to those in Japan.