Spy satellite to make uncontrolled re-entry.

docm · Feb 21, 2008

An AP report says it may take a day or so to evaluate if the fuel tank was hit, directly or indirectly. <blockquote>In reply to:<hr />WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a Navy missile hit the spy satellite it was targeting over the Pacific Ocean and says it should know Thursday whether the spacecraft's fuel tank was destroyed as planned. The missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said. Full details were not immediately available. It happened just after 10:30 p.m. ET. The goal in this first-of-its-kind mission for the Navy was not just to hit the satellite but to obliterate a tank aboard the spacecraft carrying 1,000 pounds of a toxic fuel called hydrazine. U.S. officials have said the fuel would pose a potential health hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area. Although the odds of that were small even if the Pentagon had chosen not to try to shoot down the satellite, it was determined that it was worth trying to eliminate even that small chance. Officials said it might take a day or longer to know for sure if the toxic fuel was blown up.<hr /></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

usn_skwerl · Feb 21, 2008

Touche <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

robotical · Feb 21, 2008

'Target destroyed' <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

docm · Feb 21, 2008

I'd love to see the nose imagers pictures. Here's one from an earlier test on a target missile (PIC ) EDIT: Fox just reported that a contact within the military says the hydrazine tank appears to have been hit. Also; a local station is reporting a debris field containing 80 major fragments. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

cazuke · Feb 21, 2008

Guys, don't fear. Our friends at AP have compiled a detailed video of the operation. I have to warn the inhabitants of planet earth.... DONT PANIC... the video is not on scale :-D http://www.youtube.com/v/BbBc_xrJWwE

docm · Feb 21, 2008

My 9 year old could have done a better job with that video <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> Interviews in the last half hour say that they have detected hydrazine in the debris field, so it sounds like the tank was indeed hit. Nice shot <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

docm · Feb 21, 2008

UPDATE: CNN video of presser including footage of the shoot down here BIG badaboom!! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

3488 · Feb 21, 2008

Looked pretty accurate. The fact that hydrazine has been detected, shows the tank had ruptured. Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

CalliArcale · Feb 21, 2008

Woohoo! A successful shot! The nerd in me is pleased on so many levels -- a satellite, a rocket, and an explosion. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

cazuke · Feb 21, 2008

Really nice big explosion they are showing us. Probably the nicest way to close out a failed launch/mission. At least you get a bit of eyecandy for your money. BTW: where is the consipircy thread about US learning of china's naughty plans a year and a bit ago, then launching an actual BUS (not just a bus sized satellite) to have it 'malfunction' and then have an excuse to rapidly disassemble it in orbit with a rocket. Watch out for that yellow schoolbus when the camonmissile footage is released

billslugg · Feb 21, 2008

Great video. Latest word is that they cannot detect with radar anything larger than a football. I especially like the part right at the end where Richard Roth asks a little girl what she thinks of the fact that the satellite was "as big as a school bus". "OH - that's scary!" <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

Zipi · Feb 21, 2008

Way to go! That was cool. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> Let's hope that political ground settles after the successfull mission and nobody uses this as an excuse to perfom higher orbit ASAT tests... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

aaron38 · Feb 21, 2008

Is the entire debris field expected to deorbit? Or could chunks have been blasted into an orbit that will be semi-permanent? What are the odds that a fragment would cross the ISS orbit? But since the ISS is continually reboosted, and there is some drag, if any fragments did make it to that orbit, they wouldn't stay there for long, right?

MeteorWayne · Feb 21, 2008

There are reports reenetering fragments were observed in Canada. Everything will deorbit very shortly, withing a few orbits at most. The odds are zero that a fragemnt could cross the ISS orbit, it's simply too high compared to the shootdown orbit. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

wick07 · Feb 21, 2008

Is the entire debris field expected to deorbit? Or could chunks have been blasted into an orbit that will be semi-permanent? What are the odds that a fragment would cross the ISS orbit? But since the ISS is continually reboosted, and there is some drag, if any fragments did make it to that orbit, they wouldn't stay there for long, right? I am far from an expert in orbital mechanics, but here it goes... Since the impact was kenetic there is not a possibility that energy has been added to the system, so nothing should accelerate. Any pieces that are slowed down will enter sooner than they would have otherwise, and pieces that were not slowed will continue in the same orbit they were in and reenter about the same time they would have if we had done nothing. In the off chance that a piece managed to gain altitude during the collision it will simply begin oscillating around the altitude of it's previous orbit until it too reenters. Can anyone here who knows more about orbital mechanics then me verify that what I have said above is correct? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> _______________________________ "If you are surrounded by those who constatly agree with you, then you're in an intellectual vacuum. If you feel like trying to make a difference, you have to BE different. How can you do that without interacting with those who are different from yourself?"- a_lost_packet_ </div>

Zipi · Feb 21, 2008

I'm not a pro of this topic, but how about that explosion? It can add energy to the objects. And maybe some debris can take a highly elliptical orbit and cross with the ISS? Still I don't think this is possible, but just speculating what I think could be somehow happening... Because I don't have a better understanding of this topic... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

MeteorWayne · Feb 21, 2008

There was no explosion, merely a whack of a 5000 pound spacecraft with a 40 pound hunk of metal. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

Zipi · Feb 21, 2008

The image seemed pretty bright... But is that only a radar effect when there is a lots of small pieces flying around? I know that the missile don't have a war head anykind, but cannot the hydrazine explode? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

wick07 · Feb 21, 2008

I'm not a pro of this topic, but how about that explosion? It can add energy to the objects. And maybe some debris can take a highly elliptical orbit and cross with the ISS? I had forgotten about the explosion, you are right, that could accelerate pieces into a higher orbit. But agreed; I doubt there is enough energy to boost it into the orbit of the ISS. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> _______________________________ "If you are surrounded by those who constatly agree with you, then you're in an intellectual vacuum. If you feel like trying to make a difference, you have to BE different. How can you do that without interacting with those who are different from yourself?"- a_lost_packet_ </div>

wick07 · Feb 21, 2008

I thought some of the hydrazine ignited. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> _______________________________ "If you are surrounded by those who constatly agree with you, then you're in an intellectual vacuum. If you feel like trying to make a difference, you have to BE different. How can you do that without interacting with those who are different from yourself?"- a_lost_packet_ </div>

MeteorWayne · Feb 21, 2008

I see, Yes that is possible, however if the spacecraft was already disrupted at that point, the explosion of the hyrdrazine would add little velocity to the pieces. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

Zipi · Feb 21, 2008

I think this depends how the missile hit... If it hit directly to the hydrazine tank, the tank may have compressed smaller and exploded before it simply ruptured. Yet again I'm a speculating without knowing better... I don't even know can the hydrazine ignite of pressure. And then totally out of question speculation: If the tank got only a small hole and worked like thruster burning the hydrazine. If the tank ruptured and the hydrazine simply ignited, then I cannot see how it could add significant amount of energy to any piece of debris. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

docm · Feb 21, 2008

I'm hearing that the tank took a direct hit with a closing velocity of about 20,000 MPH. Let's not forget that the proposed electromagnetic railguns kinetic projectiles are supposed to go less than half that fast, yet they are said to be capable of taking out hard targets without explosives at a range of />200 miles. To say that the satellite fragmented into a million pieces in a millisecond is probably an understatement <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

PistolPete · Feb 21, 2008

<blockquote>In reply to:<hr />The image seemed pretty bright... But is that only a radar effect when there is a lots of small pieces flying around? I know that the missile don't have a war head anykind, but cannot the hydrazine explode?<hr /></blockquote> That wasn't a radar image, it was a near IR image from a forward looking infrared camera, probably from the FLIR on the tracking aircraft. I doubt that an explosion from the hydrazine tank, which was radiating in all directions, could have imparted enough delta-v onto an object that could boost its apogee that high while also increasing its perigee. In short, while it might reach the hight of the ISS's orbit, its perigee would remain the same and still come down within a few orbits. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai </div>

propforce · Feb 21, 2008

The nerd in me is pleased on so many levels -- a satellite, a rocket, and an explosion. .. and just once, the management is pleased to associate the word "explosion" with "rocket" and "satellite" !! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> .. no engineers will get blamed in this case ! <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

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