U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite

[Happy Monkey]

American and Russian. Who would have thunk otherwise?

[Ronald Cherrycoke]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

American and Russian. Who would have thunk otherwise?

Chinese have been demanding a treaty to eliminate space warfare. A moral America would have jumped at this immediately. But that is 100% contrary to Cheney's agenda to militarize space. The negative consequences are equivalent to nuclear weapons testing. But Cheney has 'big dic' attitudes. As usual, it is the United States (only in the past 6 years) that wants to dictate to the world rather than advance it.



YAWN....HAAAAAAA....HAAAAAAA...

[lumberjim]

we should launch a big giant hoover space vacuum sattelite. with a hepafilter!

[rigcranop]

Taken from
http://science.nasa.gov//realtime/

Live 3D Java Tracking Display
Did you know there are over eight thousand artificial objects orbiting Earth? Over 2,500 are satellites, operative and inoperative. The remaining objects are orbital debris: parts such as nosecone shrouds, lens, hatch covers, rocket bodies, payloads that have disintegrated or exploded, and even objects that "escape" from manned spacecraft during operations.

J-Track 3D is one of the most popular Java applets on our web site. It shows 900 satellites, out of thousands, swarming about our earth. You can rotate the display and modify all kinds of settings. The display will also zoom in and out.

[Pie]

Damn. Why didn't this collision make headlines on Tuesday? Or did I miss it?
Thanks for the link, glatt.

[glatt]

It was buried in the A section of today's paper. I almost didn't see it.

With the fires in Australia and the stimulus bill, I think it just faced competition for news coverage. But it's a big story, and unfolding. They still don't know how bad it is going to be. If you ever looked at the orbits of the Iridium satellites, it's obvious that this will be a big problem.

[TheMercenary]

I didn't know that 500miles was considered low orbit. I am surprised that things don't fall into the atmosphere with more frequency.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I didn't know that 500miles was considered low orbit. I am surprised that things don't fall into the atmosphere with more frequency.

Well that was my comment, and it's subjective. It's far lower than geostationary birds, but higher than the space station.

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I didn't know that 500miles was considered low orbit. I am surprised that things don't fall into the atmosphere with more frequency.

ISS really is not in space. Do to compromises to give the Air Force a space plane (Space Shuttle), ISS really sits in earth's upper atmosphere some 200+ miles up. ISS must constantly fire rockets to push itself higher.

LEO (low earth orbit) I believe is below 1000 miles.

About a year ago, the US military tested a satellite destruction weapon. Last week, I believe the Air Force said the debris was mostly gone.

Curious is how devastating that collision was. Military officers who monitor this stuff expected the collision to result in many larger pieces. That's another 800 pieces - any one of which can take out any manned space vehicle - space shuttle, ISS, etc. Just another 800 particles that must be tracked constantly for generations so that not one tiny particle gets within miles of any satellite or manned mission.

Littering laws are not enforced.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Today's paper said the junk might endanger the Hubble.

[glatt]

Today's paper had a lot more information.

The cloud of debris from this collision is actually two clouds, each roughly following the previous orbit of each satellite, because it was a glancing impact. Military radar picked up roughly 700 pieces of debris larger than 4 inches, but experts estimate that there are millions of smaller pieces not seen by the radar.

They expect that the debris field will continue to spread, and some of the debris will get as high as 1000 or 1500 miles of altitude.

The most amazing thing I saw in the article was this quote.

Johnson said that four or five satellites a day pass within 300 yards of debris or some other satellite.

[Griff]

From what I've read, now that we've had one very unlikely collison the odds get better for another. They will snowball as debris takes out satellites, creating more debris, taking out more satellites... Basically the human race is trapping itself on earth. We need a clean up effort.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Today's paper said the junk might endanger the Hubble.

That would be a sad thing indeed.

[TheMercenary]

Map of orbital debris

[classicman]

Is that before or after the collision? Isn't there debris there all the time anyway?