The falling spy satellite is now naked-eye visible

[bananas]

Spaceweather.com has a 154k animated gif on it's front page,
click on it for a 1m animated gif.

www.spaceweather.com

SPY SATELLITE UPDATE: The Pentagon's first attempt to hit USA 193 with a missile could come "within days" according to press reports. Until then, sky watchers can catch the malfunctioning spy satellite as it makes a series of final passes over many US towns and cities. Friedrich Deters sends this movie from LaGrange, North Carolina:


Click to view the complete movie

The clip shows USA 193 rounding the horizon at dawn on Feb. 10th. The source of its luminosity: reflected sunlight. "This was the first time I could see the decaying satellite," says Deters. It was bright enough to photograph using an ordinary digital camera--"my Canon Rebel XT."

If Pentagon missiles miss USA 193, a distinct possibility, rhe satellite will continue to circle Earth, slowly sinking into the atmosphere as its orbit decays. In early March (March 6th is an oft-repeated estimate) the satellite would reenter and break up, producing a brilliant fireball and scattering pieces over some yet-to-be-determined part of Earth. Officials worry that hydrazine propellants could produce a toxic cloud of uncertain dimension. A missile-strike would shift these events from Earth to the relative safety of space--or so the thinking goes.

Would you like to see USA 193 with your own eyes? The upcoming flybys of North America occur in early evening; no waking up at dawn required! Flyby timetables may be found at Heavens Above. You can also receive telephone and email alerts when the satellite is about to fly over your backyard by subscribing to Spaceweather PHONE.

more images: from Thomas Dorman near Horizon City, Texas; from Becky Ramotowski of Tijeras, New Mexico;

[doc03]

1. I find it odd they are worrying so much about these

hydrazine propellants, it must be more serious than that I am thinking perhaps it has nuclear weapons on board.

[caraher]

4. I think it's just sabre rattling...

China shot down an old satellite, so the US wants to demonstrate we can take out satellites too. The "worry" about hydrazine is just a fairy tale intended to create an excuse for the missile test.

It's also incredibly (well, OK, with this crew I should believe it) hypocritical. When China shot down their satellite the US rightly complained about the enormous increase in debris in low-Earth orbit (since the satellites aren't really shot "down" but transformed into shrapnel).

It's conceivable that there might be something dangerous onboard the satellite that might survive re-entry, but it doesn't strike me as terribly likely. As for nuclear power sources being onboard, it's true that some satellites have power sources based on radioactive materials, but they're not really "engines" as they do not produce thrust to tweak the satellite's orbit or orientation. (In fact, that's what the hydrazine is for!) It's really more a generator of electric power (and not a fission reactor, either; the energy comes from spontaneous nuclear decays).

There also might be something they want kept secret that could survive re-entry. This strikes me as more likely motivation than safety concerns (this must be the first time the military space program has ever expressed worry about safety or environmental concerns stemming from their activities!).

[Dover]

5. Agreed. I'm sure they WILL shoot it down as a message to China/Russia.

A lot of muscle flexing going on right now, especially regarding space/military supremacy. That is why China did their satellite shoot-down thing, Iran is launching satellites, India just launched a satellite for Israel, and that is probably how that satellite found it's way to earth in Peru most recently. The rest is just PR to get eyes and ears to focus skyward at our military prowess. It's the wild west up there and no sheriff.

The Star Wars program is alive and well:

Star Wars: Protecting Globalization From Above

by Karl Grossman, Special to CorpWatch
January 18th, 2002


The United States is moving full-speed ahead on a missile defense program with events of September11th giving a big boost to the scheme. Missile defense, or "Star Wars," advocates maintain the terrorist attack demonstrated the kind of future assault -- the next time around with missiles -- that the U.S. must seek to offset. They also point to the need to protect "US interests and investments" around the globe. Opponents argue the most likely threat to the U.S. continues to be relatively low-tech terrorist attacks, not sophisticated missiles. Star Wars supporters are now riding high. Meanwhile the troubled aerospace industry is hoping to be shored up by big-ticket defense contracts.

Some $95 billion has been spent on missile defense since Ronald Reagan first advanced the program in 1983, according to the Center for Defense Information (CDI) in Washington. Despite the billions the program has never produced a successful missile system. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and TRW have been the "Big Four" among aerospace corporations receiving program monies. Many billions more will be spent in coming years. All four companies aggressively lobby Capitol Hill on defense spending.

These companies have close ties to the Bush administration, as they did to the Democratic administration that proceeded it. The military machine is alive and well more than a decade after the end of the cold war. This time globalization is the rationale for arms build up -- and some of the same corporations that promoted and profited from the cold war are behind it.


cont'd
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1333

[lovuian]

2. Some of the Spy Satellites have nuclear engines

but only America would know that
and I think the Peruvian Crater Mystery
has shown the possibility that people can be harmed by this

[hootinholler]

3. Peruvian Crater Mystery?

Do tell.

-Hoot

[Ghost Dog]

7. Some data & speculation here:

(if this site's acceptable to DU) - http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=110563

[NNadir]

6. I'll bet that there are a zillion dumbass paranoids who want to ban satellites because they're

afraid of the risk.

I actually know a few pathetic dumb asses with pathetic views of risk.

[Orsino]

11. Well, if anyone does get injured or poisoned by it...

...I know where to send him to complain. :+

[Ghost Dog]

8. (I'm no expert) Is this thing on an ecuatorial or a polar orbit?

(or whatever the terminology is).

Could there not be such a thing as an animated graphic out there that would show us, even approximately, where it will be on what dates over the next days/weeks? Any useful (uninitiated human-readable) links, please?

(As a Canary Islander, I enjoy, usually, excellent clear skies and have often observed naked-eye satellites sailing overhead soon after sea-level sunset. MIR was so beautiful, with her long tail of detritus following behind...).

[caraher]

9. Probably polar - or at least a high inclination orbit

Apparently you can get info on when it flies over your area at Heavens Above (from the article linked in the OP).

[HamdenRice]

10. When I was a kid, before all this light pollution, we used to watch satellites

It was just something people did in the 1960s before sodium vapor street lights basically obliterated the night sky in cities and even in the countryside near any towns.

You could watch satellites in New York City. But when we went to my grandmother's farm, the sky was incredible! We would watch for falling stars and man made satellites.

[Dover]

12. Russia says the shootdown is really about the U.S. testing new weapons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248995.stm