Posted on 04/05/2009 6:08:56 PM PDT by reaganaut1
North Korea failed in its highly vaunted effort to fire a satellite into orbit, military and private experts said Sunday after reviewing detailed tracking data that showed the missile and payload fell into the sea. Some said the failure undercut the North Korean campaign to come across as a fearsome adversary able to hurl deadly warheads halfway around the globe.
Defying world opinion, North Korea in recent weeks had moved steadily and fairly openly toward launching a long-range rocket that Western experts saw as a major step toward a military weapon. The launching itself on Sunday, which the North Korean government portrayed as a success — even bragging that the supposed satellite payload was now broadcasting patriotic tunes from space — outraged Japan and South Korea, led to widespread rebuke by President Obama and other leaders, and forced the United Nations Security Council to go into an emergency session.
But looking at the launching from a purely technical vantage point, space experts said the failure represented a blow that in all likelihood would seriously delay the missile’s debut.
“It’s got to be embarrassing,” said Geoffrey E. Forden, a missile expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I can image heads flying if the ‘Dear Leader’ finds out the satellite didn’t fly into orbit, ” he said, referring to the name North Koreans are obliged to use when speaking of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s reclusive leader.
Analysts dismissed the idea that the rocket firing could represent a furtive success, calling the failure consistent with past North Korean fumbles and suggesting it may reveal a significant quality-control problem in one of the world’s most isolated nations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As another astute freeper pointed out last night, it was a complete success. They wanted to know what we’d do about it, and they found out. Absolutely nothing.
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We should pop the next one with a cruise missile about the time they are fueling on the pad....
Show them a real crowd-pleaser....
Just my 2-cents...
And if you sell one to say Iran, stick a nuke on top... who cares if it can reach orbit?
Perhaps they could claim the great (cult) leader leader has just accomplished the first ever launch of an invisible satellite. And you doubt his success you must go to prison.
I still question the assumption that they were trying to put anything in orbit. The question is did the stages separate properly? Because mastering multistage rocketry is the key for producing long range ballistic missiles.
Bob has words for this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn5SOB0zbKg
Drinking with Bob is just plain great.
Oops. I should have said “dear (cult) leader
I don’t understand the picture accompanying the article: It says there are S. Koreans demonstrating against the N. Korean launch near the US embassy.
Why would they be demonstrating against our embassy for a N. Korean missile launch?
Nah, they might find pieces of our cruise missile. Not that they could do anything about it. But I'd rather they didn't know they were hit. I think it would set them back further - trying to find out what went wrong on the pad.
I'm thinking stealthy Global Hawk with the smallest ASM we have. Chances of finding and identifying pieces of a small unguided missile after a TD-2 goes up on the pad are just about nil...
Inform NK that the next test will be target practice for the us. Make it loud and clear that this is a threat, and little Kim better be careful. Warn this bastard. And any retaliation and we will rip him to shreds.
Maybe we could do only one better...
Test fire those experimental airborne laser systems....
NO DEBRIS -- except their own junk...
I'm with you. I doubt this was ever intended as a satellite launch attempt. I think that was a (thin) smokescreen to appease the international community.
I think they were testing their revised first stage, working on their staging, testing their (new?) third stage, and probably checking out a re-entry vehicle design.
As you say, staging is a critical technique. They've also had problems with their first stage before. I think the third stage was new on this shot. Finally, you can test RVs on shorter range missiles, but they don't come down with the same kinetic energy - they really needed to loft one completely out of the atmosphere and re-enter at a realistic angle and velocity.
I think their "satellite" launch was a "failure" but their test (assuming they were able to collect their data) was a success. It would appear from news reports that the third stage did burn. Not sure if they got RV separation or not, nor what kind of range they were able to achieve...
No, they did something. The UN had an international keggar in the Security Council, but got too drunk to issue any kind of statement. When they sober up, there will be hell to pay in North Korea....
Heads wirr lorr!
See tagline.
Kind of like the bum in “The Terminator” ... “Hey buddy, did you just see a real bright light?” ;-)
Obama already warned then and so did Mrs. Clinton.. we had a show of force on both sides of Japan, and we should of took it down.. We have 5000 some military and their families in Japan.. all this did was show that obama is weak.. and you can beat Bin Laden was watching our reaction...But Obama was in europe running down Americans, in France he said we were arrogant.. he speaks only for him self I hope..
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