Bush takes aim at U.S. Satellite.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

The US at the time protested about the test, seeing it as a hostile action. James Jeffrey, the deputy national security adviser yesterday discounted comparisons to the anti-satellite test conducted by China"This is all about trying to reduce the danger to human beings," he said

those press releases are Oscar worthy

[Julian Delphiki]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
They're doing this to show the world that, hey, China ain't the only nation capable of blasting satellites into rubble.

Anti-satellite know-how has been around for some time, but I don't think the Soviet Union or the U.S. actually ever shot down a satellite. So far, only China has done so.

I think both did; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon (it's not totally clear about what USSR actually shot down).

US

The first launch of the new anti-satellite missile took place in January 1984. The first, and only, successful interception was on September 13, 1985. The F-15 took off from Edwards Air Force Base, climbed to 80,000 feet and vertically launched the missile at the Solwind P78-1, a US gamma ray spectroscopy satellite orbiting at 555 km, which was launched in 1979.

USSR
Delays in the UR-200 missile program prompted Chelomei to request R-7 rockets for prototype testing of the IS. Two such tests were carried out on November 1, 1963 and April 12, 1964. Later in the year Khrushchev cancelled the UR-200 in favor of the R-36, forcing the IS to switch to this launcher, who's space launcher version was developed as the Tsyklon 2. Delays in that program led to the introduction of a simpler version, the 2A, which launched its first IS test on October 27, 1967, and a second on April 28, 1968. Further tests carried out against a special target spacecraft, the DS-P1-M, which recorded hits by the IS warhead's shrapnel. A total of 23 launches have been identified as being part of the IS test series. The system was declared operational in February 1973.

Testing resumed in 1976 as a result of the US work on the Space Shuttle. Elements within the Soviet space industry convinced Leonid Brezhnev that the Shuttle was a single-orbit weapon that would be launched from Vandenburg, maneuver to avoid existing anti-ballistic missile sites, bomb Moscow in a first strike, and then land.[5] Although the Soviet military was aware these claims were false[citation needed], Brezhnev believed them and ordered a resumption of IS testing along with a Shuttle of their own. As part of this work the IS system was expanded to allow attacks at higher altitudes and was declared operational in this new arrangement on July 1, 1979. However, in 1983, Yuri Andropov ended all IS testing and all attempts to resume it failed.[6] Ironically, it was at about this point that the US started its own testing in response to the Soviet program.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

The safety angle is completely bogus as Kuci says, though not for the reason he says it. If there's a dangerous material on board, it's still coming down whether it burns up in the atmosphere as a single piece or rains down and burns up in many pieces.

Bzzzt. If it disperses as a gas and you blow it up in the upper atmosphere, it's never going to reach the ground in appreciable concentrations.

If it's a heavy metal, i.e., plutonium, it will come down. That's where the plutonium in our atmosphere comes from, falling satellites.

[Kuciwalker]

RTFA. It's not plutonium.

"What makes this case is a little bit different... was the likelihood that the satellite upon descent to the Earth's surface could release much of its 1,000lb plus (454 kg) of its hydrazine fuel as a toxic gas," he said.

...

If the hydrazine tank did burst, the danger zone would be an area covering the size of two football pitches. He said that blowing the satellite up would disperse the hydrazine harmlessly in space, leaving only small-scale satellite debris to fall harmlessly to Earth.

[Perfection]

TAKE THAT, CHINA!

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Perfection
TAKE THAT, CHINA!

...We'll blow all our satellites up before you even get a chance to!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia


...We'll blow all our satellites up before you even get a chance to!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
They're doing this to show the world that, hey, China ain't the only nation capable of blasting satellites into rubble.

Anti-satellite know-how has been around for some time, but I don't think the Soviet Union or the U.S. actually ever shot down a satellite. So far, only China has done so.

And, yes, it'll be humiliating if they miss.

Gatekeeper

Yup, I agree with Gatekeeper.

[Kuciwalker]

Except for the whole "I don't think the Soviet Union or the U.S. actually ever shot down a satellite" bit, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT

We did it 23 years ago. Like usual, the Chinese were decades late.

[Colon™]

They have been quicker to apply maglev though.

[Aeson]

Speaking of Russian superiority, lets see the US or China do this!

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Aeson
Speaking of Russian superiority, lets see the US or China do this!

nice landing

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Aeson
Speaking of Russian superiority, lets see the US or China do this!

That's pretty cool.

[Krill]

I thought that was from War of the Worlds...

[Wezil]

I did too.

It should go in the funny vids thread. Wherever that went...