I wish I were still in the missile defense biz

yeti · Post by **yeti** » Feb 14th, '08, 21:31

Exciting times are afoot. Oh well - we are going to see if my code is as good as I think it is in the coming days.

Man I wish I were going to be in Hawaii for this!

shortski · Post by **shortski** » Feb 15th, '08, 10:30

Are you referring to shooting down the failing spy satellite?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... o_a_friend

Post by **Bubba** » Feb 15th, '08, 10:55

I was hearing about that on the news this morning. The alleged purpose in shooting down the satellite is the hydrazine that's on board as fuel. If the satellite were to crash to earth and the hydrazine were to survive reentry and be spewed around, that could be a problem. Of course, the hydrazine would most probably burn up in the atmosphere and do no harm. And, of course, the satellite shoot would (if successful) cause the same effect by disbursing the hydrazine into the atmosphere. The real reason(s) for taking the shoot more probably are:

1. The satellite is relatively new and, if it were to crash on land and the guts could be recovered, certain secret capabilities might be learned by the recovering country.

2. We just want to test our shoot down capabilities in a real world environment.

Stormchaser · Post by **Stormchaser** » Feb 15th, '08, 11:00

I thought they were gonna shoot it down before re-entry...

yeti · Post by **yeti** » Feb 15th, '08, 18:06

Yes - the ASAT shot is what I am referring to. The term "ASAT" (anti satellite) was officially banned from use while I was on that effort.

Some of my former coworkers bugged out for Kauai or Maui a few days ago. It will be interesting to sit down with them and have a beer when they get back.

Wierdly, much of this is classified above their level, so they will have to sit out the actual shot - when the screens "go orange" they have to leave the room. I am now cleared high enough for the event, but since I am no longer tasked under that project I don't have a need to know and am locked out completely. Go figure. The joys of compartmentalization.

Oh well, well find out if my code works either way.

shortski · Post by **shortski** » Feb 16th, '08, 08:13

yeti wrote:Yes - the ASAT shot is what I am referring to. The term "ASAT" (anti satellite) was officially banned from use while I was on that effort.

Thought it was, this shot has got a lot of countries panties all in a wad. I think the Russian Bombers buzzing a US aircraft carrier last week was a little demo on how pissed they are. Don't know what the big deal is China already shot down one of their satellite, but of course they blew up in orbit and now the derbies is endangering low orbit satellites. That why the US plans to blow it up in the atmosphere, it's all about safety.....and to demonstrate we have the ability to shoot down missiles.