Shootdown on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy likely will make its first attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Wednesday night.


A Delta II rocket lifts off in December, carrying a reconnaissance satellite that failed hours later.

The U.S. government issued a formal notice warning ships and planes to stay clear of a large area of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii.

The notice says the two- and-a-half hour window begins 2:30 a.m. Thursday Greenwich Mean Time, which is 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast, and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hawaii.

The timing is also after the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to be safely on the ground.

Pentagon officials caution that the notice reflects the first opportunity to take a shot at the satellite, but it's possible the attempt could be delayed until later.

"We have to make the notification, but it's possible the conditions won't be ideal, or that everything won't be ready," said a Pentagon official who asked not to be identified.

Pentagon officials says if the first attempt to hit the satellite fails, there may be time for a second attempt, but that would only come after an assessment that would be hours or even days after the first attempt.

Because the 5,000-pound satellite malfunctioned immediately after launch in December 2006, it has a full tank of fuel. It would likely survive re-entry and disperse potentially deadly fumes over an area the size of two football fields, officials have said.

The Navy plans to fire at the satellite as it enters Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 150 miles.

Officials want the missile to hit the edge of the atmosphere to ensure debris re-enters and burns up quickly.

Without any intervention, Pentagon officials have said they believe the satellite would come down on its own in early March.

The option of striking the satellite with a missile launched from an Aegis cruiser was decided upon by President Bush after consultation with several government and military officials and aerospace experts, said Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey.


"If we miss, nothing changes," said NASA administrator Michael Griffin. "If we shoot and barely touch it, the satellite is just barely in orbit" and would still burn up somewhat in the atmosphere, he said.

"If we shoot and get a direct hit, that's a clean kill and we're in good shape," he added.

Well, they say they hit it....

HONOLULU (AP) - A U.S. Navy cruiser blasted a disabled spy satellite with a pinpoint missile strike that achieved the main mission of exploding a tank of toxic fuel 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean, defense officials said.
Destroying the satellite's onboard tank of about 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, and a senior defense official close to the mission said Thursday that it appears the tank was destroyed, and the strike with a specially designed missile was a complete success.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the shootdown, which came late Wednesday as he began an eight-day, around-the-world trip on which he likely will face questions about the mission.

The elaborate intercept may trigger worries from some international leaders, who could see it as a thinly disguised attempt to test an anti-satellite weapon—one that could take out other nation's orbiting communications and spy spacecraft.

Within hours of the reported success, China said it was on the alert for possible harmful fallout from the shootdown and urged Washington to promptly release data on the action.


the rest of the article is here:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UUMHJO1&show_article=1

This is an interesting news story, for a few reasons. First, since when does the military go on a full-out media blitz to advertise an operation along these lines? My gut says this is not as it appears to be. Interesting discussions over on the conspiracy boards ... for those interested. Of course, it's never beneficial to lend too much energy to fearful imaginings.

Of course, the media alert may have been simply to head off conspiracists: Since so much airspace would be required to be cleared, the public was bound to get a whiff of something going on.

Thoughts, anyone?

Nixfan I have been thinking the same thing. I do not believe by any stretch of the imagination that this was as relayed to us. There was way too much media coverage, and then only enough to satisfy the majority of the masses that believe everything this government tells them.

I am not sure that this was not a show of force towards China in response to the satellite they shot down last year, or to hide something that they did not want to be discovered by any of our adversaries, such as a nuclear core in this thing. I could be totally off, but I do not trust the government to tell us exactly what this entails. It could also have been a show of force towards Russia AND China. Russia has become quite aggressive lately.

Here's what irks me about media news:

I. govt says satellite is about the size of a small bus.

2. defunct satellites have little fuel left.

3. the spy satellite according to nasa had about 1000lbs of hydrazine left.

It took three different news sources to post these three "facts"

Just how many pounds does the fuel tank (full) of a small bus weigh?

Anymore questions? Anyone want more answers? Would anyone care for a mint? (Or a bar of soap to wash their mouth out........)

In anhydrous form (air-oxygen---breathing) long-term is toxic. Short-term means some coughing (when exposed to large amounts as next to a factory leaking it) In water (as if or when it might eventually fall and/or re-enter earth's atmosphere) it dissipates within a few hours and neutralizes itself (absorbed- as in potatoes and pickle juice hee-hee).

So much is missing in our way of processing news, not the news itself. No conspiracy here, just plain outright lies, all of them, except the science concerning rats and exposure to hydrazine (No reported deaths, long-term (cancerous, for example) in humans who live near Olin Factories for example. But even that research (an hour's worth of my time) still doesn't leave me any clues about how much, how risky, or was any of this accurate. According to EPA websites, hyrazine info is missing, completely. In Environmental Defense pages, it states no testing has been done since 1997......it just goes on and on and on.

We either look at these news items with the same compassion we do for tragedy or buy into the fear that tragedy will probably occur because of "it". If we do the latter, we have no energy left for compassion (which takes a LOT of ENERGY AND COURAGE) these days......

Wild dove you are so right. I have almost - but not quite- given up distressing over what the government puts out for the media to tell us. There is nothing we can do about it - it is out of our league -we just need to focus our energy on compassion and love, and C'est la vie.

Anyway pass that bar of soap. I need to pass it around.

Did you say 1,000 lbs of hydrazine in a small bus? What? They expect us to believe this?

Both items came from Edinbergs evening news (I begin my home page with google.uk instead of google.us. Seems I get more/more options that way. I like scotsman news....

http://news.scotsman.com

Yes, the satellite is the size of a small bus (there are smaller ones), but half a ton of fuel left? See? We will never know enough to confirm our posts, including (should the media ask the question) whatever the govt CHOOSES to release, making sure whoever asks the question is discredited first. By the time the govt. either apologizes (which is so rare) or corrects (claiming an accidental missprint), the doubt or disinterest has already set in. They know this so well, they are actually changing people's minds. So much more important that at least we point out the confusion, once, maybe several times, if spirit tells us to, but mainly, its still about prayer both for the liar and those that believe the lies.....prayer for a change of behavior as well as a change of heart. We don't even have to mention what behaviors we are referring to, or which ones the spirit helpers will use....they already know. In all my years doing this, I am simply asked to keep praying in the way that I do. They (the ancestral spirits) appreciate it. I don't think this is a mere pat on my back. It goes back to the belief that the power of love is really a lot stronger than most of us believe possible. Sending a visualized form of love (a beam of soft silver light, for example) with your eyes open that connects you from the place you are sitting in to the exact place in the photo you just saw is real, to me, to my spirit guides and to millions of people. That is all. Aho!