Spy Satellite to Hit Earth by late February to March Options

[dvandorn]

CNN just ran the story about 20 minutes ago, reporting a hit. No details, and no information whatsoever about how direct the hit was. The only "information" given was that the satellite was traveling at orbital velocity (first cosmic velocity to our Russian friends), roughly 17,500 mph, and the impactor was going about 5,000 mph in the opposite direction. (Yeah, I know, it's olde English imperial units -- but it's CNN, after all.)

-the other Doug

[ElkGroveDan]

Space/AP

Navy Hits Satellite With Heat-Seeking Missile

http://www.space.com/news/080220-satellite-hit.html

[rlorenz]

You haven't been keeping up with things, it is solid hydrazine. Many propellant tanks (Delta II, Columbia, etc) have survived hypervelocity entry

I know *empty* propellant tanks can survive entry because of their low ballistic coefficient e.g.
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rlorenz/spaceball.pdf

Have any full tanks ever done so? They would surely experience much higher loads.
I wonder, can solid hydrazine detonate?

(Columbia doesnt count as it started the entry with thermal protection)

[volcanopele]

I am still waiting for the video from the missile. Don't tell me they didn't put one on it...

Hey my tax dollars paid for this, I don't think it is too much to ask for a video of said impact

[ugordan]

They need time to clean out the aliens from the footage.

[mchan]

I would, however, really like to know if there's some sort of substance out there that's safe to fly to coat the tanks with, something that might promote intense spot-heating during reentry. I don't know; maybe a layer of magnesium coated with plastic to keep the O2 out pre-launch, or even just a few strategically-placed patches of same?

One other thing about such "vent-patches" is that they might blow under some circumstances during a launch failure & dump the crap before it's anywhere close enough to habitable areas to cause problems.

Well, Nick, looks like there have been some studies along the lines of your thoughts. I was looking at one of the sci.space.* groups and pulled this signal out of the noise --

An Overview of Demise Calculations...

[mchan]

They need time to clean out the aliens from the footage.

You don't know half of it. You think it was a coincidence that the missile was launched exactly at the midpoint of the total lunar eclipse when the lowest level of solar radiation was reaching the moon?

[CAP-Team]

How much more space debree is now orbiting Earth?

[ugordan]

And, more importantly, anyone know if there's a possibility for updated orbital elements of the bulk of the debris cloud so we skygazers could go out and hope for reentry fireballs at certain times?

[djellison]

How much more space debree is now orbiting Earth?

Quite a lot, but below an altitude of any active vehicle and it'll be gone within a few weeks. China's ASAT test debris, however, continues to endanger LEO vehicles (including ISS, Hubble etc) , and will do so for many years to come.

There's a Press conf. at 1200UT today I think ( http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49024 )
Doug

[helvick]

Immediately after the impact there was quite a lot but by now there is likely to be very little and by this time next week virtually none. The dynamics of the situation have stacked the odds very much in favour of this being a very clean strike.

Timing it to coincide with a full lunar eclpise may entirely coincidental or even have been useful for some aspects of the exercise but I can't help thinking that at some point in the planning there were a bunch of military types hovering over some Cassini (and New Horizons) Kodak Moments thinking - "Guys these are cool and all but I know how we can get an even better shot". I'm waiting for that tracking shot that shows the moment of impact against a backdrop of a red-brown lunar disc.

[jaredGalen]

Apparent FEMA document outlining the satellite reentry and potential response etc.

One statement says that ninety-nine percent of the debris will renter the atmosphere within one week. The same as the original reentry timeline of the intact satellite I think.

http://88.80.13.160/wiki/US_spy_satallite_shootdown_briefing

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

As expected some of the British press are using the event to take some not so subtle digs at the United States....drawing attention to their criticism of the Chinese test, without realising much of the criticism of that event came from the scientific community highlighting how insanely stupid it was.

[djellison]

Which bits of the British Media? I've got some letter writing to do it seems

What I simply can't believe I'm reading is Chinese criticism of this. That defies belief.

Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

It was the lead story on Newsnight last night....and the first thing the presenter asked. Sadly the press are unable to see past the politics of these events... and see how totally different they are.

LOL.. you've got to laugh at this quote from China:

Spokesman Liu Jianchao said: "China is continuously following closely the possible harm caused by the US action to outer space security and relevant countries.

"China requests the US to fulfil its international obligations in real earnest and provide to the international community necessary information and relevant data in a timely and prompt way so that relevant countries can take precautions."