NATION

A Flash in the Night Sky

What will be lost with the shoot-down of a U.S. spy satellite.

By John Barry | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 20, 2008 | Updated: 1:08  p.m. ET Feb 20, 2008

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  • Posted By: josephjsalas @ 06/26/2008 4:36:59 PM

    and forget about the US trying to spook China. Ping Coal Mining has held shares in the Federal Reserve
    since the Cold War.

  • Posted By: josephjsalas @ 06/26/2008 4:35:45 PM

    I hope the highly toxic "di-hydrogene monoxide" fuel cell lands on my head so I can use the low-tech
    to run my car for free.

  • Posted By: SeattleSheila @ 02/21/2008 11:19:47 AM

    Let me get this straight: We put a spy satelite up and it malfunctions. It contains hazardous material. We have a good chance of destroying it before it re-enters our atmosphere and possibly causes a hazard to people and could allow others to gain access to our technology. Why the heck WOULDN'T we shoot it down? 1.) We can negate the risk of large pieces landing on earth, not to mention the fuel tank full of a poisonous substance. 2.) We keep our secrets to ourselves. 3.) We give our military a live target to practice on. What's to complain about?

    • Posted By: cinesimon @ 06/25/2008 6:55:02 PM

      Science diasgrees with you, but the current administration does not.

    • Posted By: Looey323 @ 02/26/2008 2:10:47 AM

      I agree 123%, SeattleShiela. You said it very well...and I would only add that
      WE did not leave a shotgun blast of debris orbiting where it can, and likely will, hit something else, like the Chinese did! I heard tht the Chinese debris came pretty close the the Space Lab..maybe another few orbits...??

    • Posted By: mhull1 @ 02/21/2008 5:25:04 PM

      People just love to complain - even if they aren't educated enough to know what they are complaining about.

  • Posted By: falsedawn @ 02/21/2008 12:27:26 PM

    It should come as no surprise that the drive-by media would take the opportunity to criitcize the military and the Bush administration. One day when this technology knocks down a nuclear-tipped missile from N. Korea or Iran or some other enemy aimed at the U. S., the same media will choke on its own vomit.

    • Posted By: cinesimon @ 06/25/2008 6:53:22 PM

      Except Star Wars was a complete failure!

    • Posted By: Braes @ 02/25/2008 2:45:00 PM

      When quoting Rush Limbaugh (drive by media) please attribute source. No actor would shoot at us long before SDI, due to overwhelming response. (Kennedy) See also: Mutually Assured Destruction

    • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 02/21/2008 1:25:26 PM

      N Korea can get as far as Hawaii [MAYBE] no closer {cause these we watched them disarm unlike the USA who is on the treaty is not disarming} and not one country in the middle-east, or Asia, can hit US soil!! No missle travels 6000 miles with a nuke tip [ but our own,MAYBE] so tone down the fear factor! We have 4000 nuclear weapons!! Iran, might, maybe, could have, in 5-10 years, got to build ONE! Israel has over 200 nukes, we gave them! So explain why, we, should have to bleed for the strongest country in the middle-east, and as oppresive as they are, they might deserve what they get!

  • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 02/21/2008 1:16:20 PM

    First you have to believe we hit it in one shot,[ which i doubt seriously ] that would require trusting our current government, and there track record sucks, and lies abound, then you need to BELIEVE the rest, gimmi a break! We fired to install fear in countries who don't have anything but rocks and stones, not to invent the water pump, or we will fire these accurate??? missles at you! So don't build a bike, it's threatens our security! Just like the atomic bomb [you know the safe one, for the rest of the people on top of the planet] but no one to drop it on! As we need the oil so Iraq was out of the question, but used for the fear factor to warn the world, we run it, and with the power of I.O.U.s we bought it to, and are still making payments.

    Warmongers are easy to see at work! All they like to do is spread fear, till someone is so scared, they strike! There you have it, another, profitable, hundred thousand body bag, conflict!! Jjust what we wanted in the first place!

    • Posted By: sjbrock80 @ 02/21/2008 4:21:42 PM

      Silly child!!

      We are very capable of hitting the object in question with one shot. Math, calculations, and physics are amazing if you know how they work.

      You have been blinded by the media, youngster. Get a clue about the military's research and you may find these things interesting and understand it has nothing to do with "warmongering".

      • Posted By: cinesimon @ 06/25/2008 6:51:30 PM

        Yet other attempts at just this type of thing(Star Wars tests) failed completely.

  • Posted By: JLPF @ 02/21/2008 12:27:43 PM

    It looks like this was just an excuse for the DoD to test its missle defense technology, a.k.a. "Star Wars." This didn't pose any real threat to earthlings. "Let's see if we can shoot something down."
    But then again, who knows? The NRO is loathe to reveal anything, including its own existence.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 02/25/2008 2:50:00 PM

      The NRO does not exist. The NSA, CIA and DIA also do not exist. It's all just a figment of our imaginations, and we should just go back to shopping with our $1000 rebates, and pray to God that noone shoots first out of stockpile confidence issues. It does look just like the build-out of a first strike capacity.

  • Posted By: gbailey59 @ 02/21/2008 12:01:14 PM

    This has nothing to do with falling debris risk or technology loss. This is a pure and simple demonstration to China and Russia and all of their surrogates that the US can and will take down any space craft that we do not want in orbit.

    I have no issues with the shoot. As always we should have problems with the federal government no being open and honest with the people who pay the bills.

    Get over falling debris, Chinese agents stealing our technology (they make most of it anyway) or any other goofy reason for the shoot. It was a demonstration of capability and statement that the Russians and Chinese can still be stepped on by our superior military capability. Unfortunately in 8 years the Democratic President and Congress will gut the military and we will be on the shoot down side of these incidents in the future.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 02/25/2008 2:41:46 PM

      I doubt that. It was Carter that gave us Stealth, Cruise Missiles, the F-15/16, etc. I would know, I was at the flight test center in those heady days of rebuilding post-vietnam. Most of America had little use for the GI then. Most of what you see on the ramp was built and bought by Democrats. It was Newts gang that said the Cold War was over and defunded us, and offered folks like me retirements.
      Now, we probably have achieved a first strike nuclear capacity, and can likely knock down even a large retaliation. There are a lot of SM-3's on lots of platforms, THAAD, Patriot, and the Airborne Laser, etc. I might suggest we have perhaps a 40+ year technological advantage, and the labs are still running 24/7. You can be very pro defense and security and anti-war. As an old SAC puke, I hung around nukes singing "Peace is our Profession."
      The problem with ABM systems is that it doesn't take too many warheads getting through to end us as a nation. I am not sure that part of the calculus is clear on all sides.

    • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 02/21/2008 1:33:39 PM

      I'm real tired of people stateing the Dems gutted the Military! When Bush Sr left a long long long list of base closures with an amedment which stated save one save them all so they were all closed so what do you do with all the personel from all the closed bases overcrowd another no pay them to leave and that's what he did paid them to leave and reinstated complet benifits to Cold War Veterans which Bush Sr tok away! Now we overcrowd Germany and Walter Reid with wounded while an Army Medical hospital and burn center in Denver sit closed! After it closed they still added a new wing, but it's still closed cause someone took 1 TRILLION from the VA budget, and it was not Santa Clause! Do your history, you can't close bases without reducing the military, and you dam sure do not go to war and close bases and keep medical hospitals closed with 60,000 wounded comming in!!!

  • Posted By: cklivans @ 02/21/2008 3:33:48 AM

    Bush does what any previous President sjould do when faced with a threat to the Nation's people. I salute the President and his policies. Why do you write articles slanted to bad mouth a patriot, the President. A "BUS" thaat weighs 5,000 pounds can't be much more than a 4 passenger car. A satellite on Orbit has used most of its fuel getting there. If the Hydrazine tank reaches 7,500 degrees, it has lost most of the fuel.I agree this was a show but if you are cowardly, you will back down to the Chinese. Our President is no coward, aand we are the greatest Nation on the planet so let's act that way! If you are like Harry Reid of anti-American fame you would write a cowardly letter like this!.

    • Posted By: sonsofliberty @ 02/21/2008 4:52:47 AM

      The fuel onboard is not used to reach orbit, its to make minute and precise adjustments while in orbit. Newsweek is dead on about the superheating comment - the heat of rentry will most certainly have an effect on the volatile fuel that our government claims to need to destroy in orbit. Thankfully concerned citizens are still reading books on 'witchcraft' topics such as thermodynamics and orbital mechanics that your beloved police state of the future will make no short order of burning in order to perpetuate ridiculous stories like these. This isn't a matter of backing down to the chinese, its about militarizing space, a whole new generation of first strike weaponry and putting the world back just a hair trigger away from Armageddon. Questioning the propaganda is patriotism sir, unless you are in favor of the classic Soviet version of the term which goes along the lines of serve the state blindly or die. The President is not a Patriot, he is guilty of treason and has betrayed everything noble this country once stood for.

      • Posted By: Braes @ 02/25/2008 2:22:39 PM

        I'm with you, and your technical comment is correct. The 'Hydrazine' tank was an excuse. It would have smoked on reentry, likely taking out much of the sattelite with it. This was about showing China and Russia that we can spank launched materials. We have over 100 Aegis cruisers with 40+ of those missiles per, and have also the Arleigh Burke Class destroyers that shoot the same. Since we can track space objects down to under the size of a golf ball now, out to well over 700 miles and plot them, this was just showing we can hit what we can see, with more systems than I had heretofore realized. (I retired from the USAF back in '95 and as such am a dinosaur on current tech.)
        It tells Russia, China and any other ballistic missile nation that space is ours to control, literally. Since we abandoned the ABM treaty, I guess I have to figure the US is ready with appropriate systems to fight Reagan's "winnable" nuclear war. I guess it's all good fun until one nuke gets through. I have begged my Senators to not go along with the "Star Wars" crap as I felt it would force adversaries into a use it or lose it mindset. I just wonder who will shoot first now. Ivan thinks he has upgraded his Topol systems with manouver and penetration aids, but our last few tests out of Alaska seemed to hit the right object amongst the penaids.
        You are right, it's a first strike capacity.

  • Posted By: burbank @ 02/21/2008 9:52:36 PM

    The test was successful, the satellite was destroyed. So to the Chinese the message was sent, anything you can do we can do better. We now have the capability to shoot down an ICBM in the boost phase of the missles launch cycle, and the capability to shoot down LEO satelltes as well. Advantage, US.

  • Posted By: jimgilmoregon @ 02/21/2008 7:00:02 PM

    This had nothing to do with the hydrazine on the satilite. This was simply an oportunity to test using a missle to shoot down a satilite. A preclude to any need to use weapons in space later on. If you remember, the Chinese did this about a year ago, and our gov. was unhappy about that. Just check and see how the Chinese, and Russians feel about this.

  • Posted By: jimgilmoregon @ 02/21/2008 6:56:43 PM

    This had nothing to do with hydrazine. The main stream press simply repeats whatever the administration tells it. I personally think this was a way to test our ability to shoot down a satelite period. If you remember, the Chinese did this a year ago. If you want to know what was really going on just look at what the Chinese and Russians said about this.

  • Posted By: sjbrock80 @ 02/20/2008 4:26:25 PM

    Very interesting article... I'm curious to see what happens when they attempt to shoot down the USA 193.

    • Posted By: gan7114 @ 02/21/2008 7:52:54 AM

      Once again, we see typical Chinese rhetoric. It's apparently ok for the Chinese to shoot their satellite out of orbit as a means of testing a missle's destructive capability, but its not ok for the US to shoot its satellite that would otherwise cause harm upon falling to Earth. You all need to wake up. You should all be more concerned that China is launching missles into space, not the US. Red China wants to take over the world. I applaud the US for flexing its muscles in China's face.

      • Posted By: DeJay @ 02/21/2008 8:38:27 AM

        If I am not mistaken, when the Chinese shot down their satellite, the United States was the first in line to criticise the Chinese. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

        • Posted By: GustoMaybe @ 02/21/2008 6:24:54 PM

          The difference is altitude. The wreckage of the much higher Chinese satellite stays in orbit for many years. The wreckage of the American satellite falls out of orbit within 48 hrs. The debris field was the only American objection. Even flecks of paint traveling at 17,000 miles per hour can cause serious damage to other spacecraft.

      • Posted By: DeJay @ 02/21/2008 8:36:08 AM

        If I remember correctly, when the Chinese shot down their satellite, the United States was the first in line to criticise the Chinese. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

      • Posted By: DeJay @ 02/21/2008 8:35:18 AM

        If I remember correctly, when the Chinese shot down their satellite, the United States was the first in line to criticise the Chinese. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

  • Posted By: dkerfoot @ 02/21/2008 9:20:44 AM

    What no one here seems to realize is just how brilliant this whole thing was.
    1. We showed the Chinese we can also blast satellites if we choose to (deterrence). 2. We did so without littering up space like they did. 3. We destroyed a potential security risk. 4. We used a reasonable enough cover story to allow China and Russia to complain, but not feel the need to publicly save face by ramping up their own efforts. 5. We eliminated a small but potenially nasty environmental safety concern. 6. WE SHOT A SATTELITE THAT WAS TRAVELING AT CLOSE TO 20,000 MPH OUT OF THE SKY! All in all, a good days work for our intelligence and military folks.

    • Posted By: sjbrock80 @ 02/21/2008 4:11:18 PM

      Well said, dkerfoot.

  • Posted By: cronie 805 @ 02/21/2008 10:48:54 AM

    A MILLION TO ONE WHAT IF THE ONE WAS HIS CHILDREN, OF COURSE WE HAVE ANOTHER LEFT WING NEWSWEEK WRITER SPREADING ANTI AMERICANISM THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

    • Posted By: Want A Change @ 02/21/2008 12:34:56 PM

      Please, keep your Rabid-Right Goose-stepping to yourself, the rest of us are interested in holding people accountable for the actions, inactions and lack of communication. Perhaps you should move to Iran where you don't have to worry about dissention, free-press or intelligent discussions of issues.

      • Posted By: dewcooper @ 02/21/2008 1:57:00 PM

        "you should move to Iran where you don't have to worry about dissention, free-press or intelligent discussions of issues."

        And yet, in the name of free-speech, you tell him to shut up...

  • Posted By: MarcyT @ 02/21/2008 12:40:57 PM

    Too many technical errors in the article for me to take all the speculation seriously. Acute exposure to hydrazine, which this would be, is more than ???moderately toxic???. More questionable though is the statement about the "zero temperature of space". Space, especially earth orbit, is not zero temperature. That's meaningless. The side of an object facing a heat source, like the Earth or the sun, can be > +250 deg F. The opposite side of the same object, facing deep space, can be < minus 200 deg F.

    And the fact that something has never happened before, is not proof it can???t. That is the same hubris for which the space program is criticized frequently.

    Finally the next to last paragraph is not reporting, it???s pure speculating. But it???s the insidious, disingenuous type of speculation that???s intended to plant guesses out there as if they are facts merely lacking confirmation by cloak-and-dagger bureaucrats. The reporter should be ashamed.

  • Posted By: quetzl @ 02/21/2008 8:57:06 AM

    For whatever the reasons for the pinpoint surgical strike...potential for toxic hydrazine exposure, safeguarding secret technology, or a clear demonstration of our abilities and resolve...then bravo for the USA, and screw you leftists, seditionists, and traitors.

    • Posted By: Want A Change @ 02/21/2008 12:40:19 PM

      So if Leftists are Seditionists and Traitors, what does that make the Rabid Right, Facists??? Get a grip dude, you should be asking intelligent questions about what your government is up to or you might as well put on the uniform and Goose-step right along with the rest of the blinded Nationalists running around this country. Thanks God the Facists will be voted out of office this year.

    • Posted By: jenaloha @ 02/21/2008 9:37:16 AM

      DITTO - Rock on Right wingers!!!

  • Posted By: MarcyT @ 02/21/2008 12:39:32 PM

    Too many technical errors in the article for me to take all the speculation seriously. Acute exposure to hydrazine, which this would be, is more than ???moderately toxic???. More questionable though is the statement about the "zero temperature of space". Space, especially earth orbit, is not zero temperature. The side of an object facing a heat source, like the Earth or the sun, can be > +250 deg F. The opposite side of the same object, facing deep space, can be < minus 200 deg F.

    And the fact that something has never happened before, is not proof it can???t. That is the same hubris for which the space program is criticized frequently.

    Finally the next to last paragraph is not reporting, it???s pure speculating. But it???s the insidious, disingenuous type of speculation that???s intended to plant guesses out there as if they are facts merely lacking confirmation by cloak-and-dagger bureaucrats. The reporter should be ashamed.

  • Posted By: natchmo @ 02/21/2008 12:31:37 PM

    iSN'T IT OBVIOUS? TtHE ADMINISTRATION EITHER IS WARNING CHINA AND RUSSIA, OR TESTING SOME KIND OF ANTI-NISSLE DEVICE. RCKET TELEMETERY? TRACKING AND LOCKING-O SYSTEMS? THERE MUST BE SOME FACTS WE ARE NOT GETTING.

  • Posted By: rpmcmurphy @ 02/21/2008 12:07:22 PM

    Forget the $74 million, that's complete chump change in this context. I want to know how much the satellite cost to develop (hundreds of millions at a minimum) and a good explanation as to how it's possible that something so expensive and "advanced" never worked in the first place. That's the real tragedy here.

  • Posted By: quetzl @ 02/21/2008 9:12:51 AM

    RE:
    Posted By: DeJay @ 02/21/2008 8:38:27 AM
    Comment: If I am not mistaken, when the Chinese shot down their satellite, the United States was the first in line to criticise the Chinese. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

    This twit must be a Brit-buffoon (identified by spelling criticize as criticise) who has absolutely no trouble speaking through his rotten yellow teeth. Yo, twit, did you mind that the USA saved your quisling a** in World War II? Get some much needed dental care through your "superior" British health care system, and scrub the yellow stripe off your pathetic back.

    • Posted By: DeJay @ 02/21/2008 11:29:41 AM

      Yo, ***, you don't know me. WWII was sixty years ago, you dumbass. If all you can do is complain about my spelling, then don't bother contributing anything to this thread. Everything you type shows how much of an idiot you really are.

    • Posted By: eshuster @ 02/21/2008 9:37:42 AM

      Do you find it necessary to insult others with your comments? These forums are designed for intelligent conversation between intelligent people. Although I respect your right to insult others, I find that those who do so only demonstrate their own lack of qualifications to participate in these forums. Say something constructive.

      • Posted By: quetzl @ 02/21/2008 9:59:50 AM

        eshuster: Interesting how you fail to direct your highly insightful, well-reasoned, rational, synoptic, and coherent priss-ship toward the likes of 1. jack113, 2. clikdawg, 3. sonsofliberty, and others who hate the USA. Your qualifications are so illuminating.

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