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Satellite could plummet to Earth

Tom B. said:
This is all fear, uncertainty and doubt.

The chances of this satellite injuring someone is 1 in a trillion! (I didn't make that figure up!)

Anyone worried about this should realise that you are much much much more likely to die from hitting your head on your toilet bowl than this. :p
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And I guarantee you that I'll be the one that it falls on...

Has anyone seen the series "Dead Like Me"? I'll be like Georgina, looking up, seeing the space toilet seat heading straight for me, and the only thing I can say is "Oh S**t"....

Who wants to take bets it hits me??

~Crawn
 
Why am I so tempted to post this images :confused:

tinfoil-hat.jpg
 
forget the tacos I think Apple should jump on board and offer free stuff like say a new pink iPod nano... at least for me ;)... or I could hope it lands in my back yard and see what I can get nasa/government to pay me or if I get to keep it sell over priced tickets to feed my Apple needs he he
 
Pentagon Plans to Shoot Down Failing Satellite

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, under orders from President Bush, is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, the White House said Thursday.

U.S. officials said that the option preferred by the administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush made his decision during the past week and asked experts to come up with a way to destoy the satellite.

Initally the administration believed that the danger from the falling satellite did not pose a large problem, but decided it was best to shoot it down when experts decided that the unused hydrazine did pose a danger.

Asked about the matter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "We have been looking at ways to mitigate the possible risk to human lives and to demonstrate our continuing commitment to safe and responsible space operations."

The disabled satellite is expected to hit the Earth the first week of March. Officials said the Navy would likely shoot it down before then, using a special missile modified for the task.

Other details about the missile and the targeting were not immediately available. But the decision involves several U.S. agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

One of the main goals of the satellite's destruction is to prevent any sensitive equipment from falling into the wrong hands.

"We are worried about something showing up on e-Bay," defense and intelligence expert John Pike said, adding that breaking up the satellite's pieces lessens the chance that sensitive U.S. technology could wind up in Chinese hands.

"What they have to be worried about is that a souvenir collector is going to find some piece, put it on e-Bay and the Chinese buy it," said Pike, who is director of the defense research group GlobalSecurity.org.

"The Chinese and the Russians spend an enormous amount of time trying to steal American technology," Pike said last week. "To have our most sophisticated radar intelligence satellite — have big pieces of it fall into their hands — would not be our preferred outcome."

The State Department declined to comment on the plan ahead of the Pentagon announcement, but said its role in such a scenario would be to inform foreign governments that the action was not hostile in nature.

"You want to make sure that everybody understands exactly what actions are being taken so there are no misunderstandings and misperceptions and also to reassure people vis-a-vis treaty obligations," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China's anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.

A key concern at that time was the debris created by Chinese satellite's destruction — and that will also be a focus now, as the U.S. determines exactly when and under what circumstances to shoot down its errant satellite.

The military will have to choose a time and a location that will avoid to the greatest degree any damage to other satellites in the sky.

Also, there is the possibility that large pieces could remain, and either stay in orbit where they can collide with other satellites or possibly fall to Earth.

It is not known where the satellite will hit. But officials familiar with the situation say about half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft is expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and will scatter debris — some of it potentially hazardous — over several hundred miles.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Short-term exposure to hydrazine could cause coughing, irritated throat and lungs, convulsions, tremors or seizures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Long-term exposure could damage the liver, kidney and reproductive organs.

Where the satellite would land would be difficult to predict until it descends to about 59 miles above the Earth and enters the atmosphere.

It would then begin to burn up, with flares visible from the ground, said Ted Molczan, a Canadian satellite tracker. From that point on, he said, it would take about 30 minutes to fall.

The satellite is outfitted with thrusters — small engines used to position it in space. They contain the toxic rocket fuel hydrazine, which can cause harm to anyone who contacts it. Officials have said there are about 1,000 pounds of propellant on the satellite.

Known by its military designation US 193, the satellite was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.

The military's Ballistic Missile Defense System, known as "Sea-Based Midcourse," could destroy the satellite just as it begins to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, said James Lewis, a satellite expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a conservative think-tank.

That would undercut any international criticism of a "war in space," Lewis said, and reframe it as a ballistic missile defense exercise.

He said it could also avoid the problem of creating a large debris field of satellite pieces that would continue to orbit.

The goal, said Lewis, would be to explode the satellite into small pieces that would mostly burn up as they re-enter the atmosphere.
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Fox News

I can't wait to see this happen. Our own little bit of sanctioned space warfare propaganda.
 
Ha - the only reason the Americans want to shoot it down is to hide some secrets which are within that satellite. There is every chance that it will burn up on re-entry so there is no danger, they just don't want to take the chances of someone getting to it before them.

As for the 'it contains harmful chemicals and we don't want any contamination' excuse thats just rubbish, if it landed anywhere other than the US they wouldn't give a damn!
 
.Andy said:
Don't worry. By the time it passes through the atmosphere it will be no bigger than a Chihuahua's head.
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We have some modern sculptures around our company's campus. One of them is really not a "sculpture" it is a fuel tank that fell back to Earth. The thing is about the size of a small car. It's got burn marks all over it and is a bit bent up. It is mounted on short stand on a concrete pad outdoors.

The real problem here is not that this thing might hit some one. There is a far larger change that some one gets hit by a truck on the highway. The real issue is that the sensor might survive re-entry. Someone could deduce the sensor's capabilities by looking at the debris. They want to keep to that information under wraps.
 
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pentagon officials said they think a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the fuel tank of an errant spy satellite late Wednesday, eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth.

"We have a high degree of confidence we got the tank," Marine Gen. James Cartwright said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday morning.

A fireball and a vapor cloud seen after the strike appeared to indicate the toxic hydrazine fuel had been destroyed, he said. The missile that struck the satellite did not carry an explosive warhead.

Cartwright also said the satellite seemed to be reduced to small pieces.

"Thus far, we see nothing larger than a football," he said.

The military was analyzing data from the strike to confirm that the tank was hit and that no larger pieces of debris escaped detection, Cartwright said.

The missile that struck the satellite was launched from the ballistic missile defense cruiser USS Lake Erie from the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii at 10:26 p.m. ET Wednesday, the general said. Breakup of the satellite more than 130 miles above was confirmed 24 minutes later, Cartwright said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/21/satellite.shootdown/index.html
 
I don't think they really care if they hit the tank or not. Just so no sensitive pieces make it to the ground intact.

It really goes to show how far they've come with this technology. China has enough trouble knocking a satellite out of the air with a ground based missle. We just hit one from a ship in rough seas.

Think someone was trying to send a message?
 
furcalchick said:
things like this make me think about the negatives of orbiting objects in space.
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Downsides? It's not going to do much. The chances of it landing in a major city are really slim, and it'll do less damage than a space rock would. Heck, it'll probably break apart during atmospheric re-entry. If it doesn't, the impact will probably vaporize any "hazardous material".
 
pilotError said:
I don't think they really care if they hit the tank or not. Just so no sensitive pieces make it to the ground intact.

It really goes to show how far they've come with this technology. China has enough trouble knocking a satellite out of the air with a ground based missle. We just hit one from a ship in rough seas.

Think someone was trying to send a message?
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Bonus of hitting on the fuel storage is that it made all of that boom-boom inside the tank carry out its main purpose. Bigger explosion = smaller pieces. Smaller pieces = less chance of someone finding something important.

And to those debating motives: I personally couldn't give a flying you-know-what what the actual motives for the test were. We gave advance warning, there was no danger to anyone else's equipment or personnel, and we blew up our own property. Pretty dispersion cloud, too :cool:
 
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