Spy satellite gone bad

[lildebcaiprs]

If and when this works, I wonder how long it will take before people start reporting a lot of UFO sightings?


Shot at satellite might come Wednesday night
First window of opportunity to launch SM-3 missile opens at 10:30 p.m. ET

By Robert Burns
updated 3:51 p.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - An attempt to blast a crippled U.S. spy satellite out of the sky using a Navy heat-seeking missile — possibly on Wednesday night — would be the first real-world use of this piece of the Pentagon's missile defense network. But that is not the mission for which it was intended.

The attempted shootdown, already approved by President Bush, is seen by some as blurring the lines between defending against a weapon like a long-range missile and targeting satellites in orbit.

The three-stage Navy missile, designated the SM-3, has chalked up a high rate of success in a series of tests since 2002 — in each case targeting a short- or medium-range ballistic missile, never a satellite. A hurry-up program to adapt the missile for this anti-satellite mission was completed in a matter of weeks; Navy officials say the changes will be reversed once this satellite is down.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY:www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23240631

[davidfritzcaiprs]

Yes amazing they are shooting it down. There is a story going around the internet supposedly by Dr Richard Boylin, a famed Ufologist and writer on the subject, that there is an genetic half breed pilot on the space craft piloting the thing and that is why the Government wants to shoot it down. So there will be no questions asked if the pilot is found LOL. Me I think they are shooting it down because there is probably a nuclear reactor on board.

[lildebcaiprs]

Guess chicken little is right, the sky IS falling!!

I heard that the satellite is only a couple of hundred miles up, and I would guess that somewhere, this explosion could be seen. And, hopefully, the pieces will burn up and not be an issue.

[balefire]

I would guess they just dont want the Rocket fuel somehow surviving reentry and splattering all over wherever it lands. At least if they shoot it down it had a better chance of simply burning up , As to a reactor on board it is certainly plausible however covert it might be

[lildebcaiprs]

The satellite is planned to be shot down around the same time as the Total Lunar Eclipse - things that make you go hmmmm?



U.S. to shoot down dead satellite Wednesday
Aegis cruiser will launch tactical missile at about 10:30 p.m. ET

U.S. to shoot down disabled satellite
Feb. 14: U.S. officials say that the Defense Department will shoot down a disabled spy satellite that is expected to hit Earth in March. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
U.S. military officials told NBC News a U.S. Navy ship is preparing to launch a missile over the Pacific Ocean Wednesday night in an attempt to shoot down a dead spy satellite.

If all goes as planned, the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie will launch the SM-3 tactical missile at about 10:30 p.m. ET from about 600 miles northwest of Hawaii.

The spy satellite lost all power almost immediately after it was launched into space in December 2006. Without power, the 5,000-pound satellite, about the size of a school bus, would be expected to make an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere and crash in early March.

Although half the satellite would be expected to burn up on reentry, U.S. officials fear that the 1,000 pounds of potentially deadly hydrazine fuel on board pose a risk to people on the ground. Military and NASA officials say because of that threat the decision was made to attempt to destroy the satellite in space.

The three-stage SM-3 missile carries a "kinetic-kill" warhead that employs infrared sensors to guide it to the target. With no explosives, the warhead must slam into the target at a closing speed of 22,000 mph to destroy the satellite 130 miles above Earth.

U.S. loses control of spy satellite
Jan. 28: A U.S. intelligence agency loses control of a spy satellite after it loses power. NBC's Tom Costello has the details.

Today show
Since the satellite has no power, the intercept must occur at a precise time when the sun's rays actually heat the satellite so the warhead's infrared sensors can detect and target the satellite. Classified computer software also will aim the warhead directly at a specific point on the satellite to hit the hyrdrazine fuel tank itself. From the launch to the intercept and kill should take about a minute and a half.

Since the satellite would be destroyed in a low orbit, U.S. officials say most of the debris would fall harmlessly through the atmosphere and not orbit the Earth as space junk.

The satellite, designated US 193, belongs to the highly-secretive National Reconnaissance Office and is loaded with sensitive, top-secret imaging devices.

U.S. officials deny, however, that the decision to destroy the satellite in space was an effort to keep the classified material from falling as debris into the hands of the Russians or Chinese.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23240631/

[lildebcaiprs]

10:49pm EST - the missile was fired, and I just heard that the satellite was hit about 130 miles above the earth. Get ready for the fallout!