Sources: Navy likely to attempt shoot down of failed satellite Thursday

[maddezmom]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Navy will likely attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite on Thursday, the day after the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land, two officials familiar with the planning told CNN Monday.

The officials — who spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the planning remains classified — said the idea is to leave as much time as possible so that a second attempt could be made in the event of a failure.


Read more: http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/

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I thought they originally said they only had one opportunity to shoot it down :shrug:

[tekisui]

1. Originally they did say only one shot. Now, they say they can take up to 4.

at a cost of some 40-60 million dollars.

[Javaman]

13. 4 shots huh?

commander guy: fire!

soldier: Ummm, it missed.

commander guy: dang it! okay fire again...

soldier: sir, the last one hit cleveland.

commander guy: so what! Fire!

soldier: errrr, okay. jeez, missed again, but it was a close miss!

commander guy: damn blast it! you guys blind???? Fire again!

soldier: okayyyy, but that last one hit Paris...

commander guy: that'll teach them! I never forgave them for pearl harbor!!! Fire it, damn it!

solder: ooooooo, I think we winged it!!! It's spinning like crazy!!

commander guy: Woo Hooo!!!

soldier: uh oh...

commander guy: uh oh, what?

soldier: uh oh, like pieces are flying off everywhere!! one just came down in the middle of disney world! Another in a harbor off Tokyo!

commander guy: we got one more. You better make it a good one, otherwise you are on KP for the rest of your life!!!

soldier: (shrugs) okay. off and away!

commander guy: well? well!!!

soldier: I have good news and bad news...

commander guy: good news!! good news!!!

soldier: we hit it...

commander guy: well, hot damn! how could there possibly be bad news???

soldier: well other than the fact that instead of one giant piece of wreckage coming down, we now have a million pieces of space buckshot coming down at roughly 15,000 miles an hour and on top of that, all that really nasty toxic fuel? well, there is a small town in texas that is really really pissed right now...

commander guy: town? Texas? which one!!! which one??????

soldier: looks like crawford...

commander guy: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[whistle]

2. It is target practice Star Wars style...

:yoiks:

[Captain Hilts]

8. They've actually done this before. Besides, Sci-fi movies show the AF and Army useless against...

outer space stuff.

[tomreedtoon]

3. Good thing they're waiting for the shuttle to land.

As I recall, every time someone has tried this Star Wars practice, they've missed. Hitting the Shuttle with a nuke would be REAL embarrassing...

[JustDavid]

5. That would be

equivalent to shooting a gun up into the air and having the bullet come down and hit an original vanGogh painting.

[pinniped]

6. I like your analogy.

.

[JustDavid]

10. Someone said the other day

that there is too much space junk and its causing problems.

I think maybe those people don't understand how big of an area we are talking about and how small we are.

The shuttle is like a single mosquito flying over NY city.

[liberal N proud]

9. If they hit the shuttle, I am sure NASA would end up apologizing

After all, this is a government lead by the bu$h regime.

[Javaman]

12. No they wouldn't, they would say that the shuttle got in the way. nt

[screembloodymurder]

4. I wonder if they have a fix on where it would land?

Maybe they do and it's not good.

[JustDavid]

11. probably do

Whatever it is....they know a hell of alot more about it than I do.
Therefore I cannot say.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

7. We only know about this

because it was leaked by amateur astronomers. the government's claim that 1000 pounds of hydrazine fuel is a good enough reason to shoot it before it reenters the atmosphere, but the real reasons are A) any piece of this satellite that winds up on Ebay will have China, Russia, or North Korea as the highest bidder, and B) to show off.

Of course, nobody is even mentioning the amazing fuckups who broke the damned thing before it ever got off the ground.

[sam sarrha]

16. it is an old satellite.. probably wouldn't matter, the fuel would burn up.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

18. No, unless 2 years is old

The satellite was launched in 2006 and stopped responding shortly after achieving orbit.

[Auggie]

14. Any way one of those pieces can fall on my neighbor's barking dog?

Just kidding...

[sam sarrha]

15. the chemical LASER is a rapid fire device, the 747 it is mounted on should be operational by now..

the satalite is well within its range

[yurbud]

17. didn't the star wars system test fail?

[hack89]

19. No - 8 hits out of 10 attempts

details here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System

[Trajan]

20. I am fascinated by the space roles given the Navy ....

In the course of a few decades; the Navy has become the first choice to knock out a space based device ? .... I am of the mind that these roles were offered to give the Navy something to do, because the usefulness of a large conventional Naval force has become anachronistic ....

I do wonder though: What happens if they miss ? .... A 'Do Over' ?

[hack89]

22. Several reasons

1. The AEGIS radar system is one of the few radars powerful and sophisticated enough to track objects in outer space. The fact that the Navy has about 80 AEGIS ships is a big deal - saves having to build more radars.

2. Ships are mobile - intercept geometry is very important. Being able to move sensors and weapons into the right position to increase your chance of intercept is a big deal. It also means you don't have to build a bunch of fixed land based radar and launch sites.

3. They had a missile that could be adapted - no need to spend the time to develop a completely new missile.

Lots of details here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System

The role of the conventional navy is not anachronistic - control of the shipping lanes (read protecting oil shipments) and strike (cruise missiles and aircraft) are still very relevant. Think a China/Taiwan situation.

[Canuckistanian]

21. What channel will it be on?

I want to watch as the great US military falls flat on it's face.