U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite

[glatt]

I wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the space age. Here. In this thread. At least the geosynchronous satellites are high enough to be fairly safe.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

I wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the space age. Here. In this thread. At least the geosynchronous satellites are high enough to be fairly safe.

Geosynchronous are the worst offenders. The reason for only a 10 minute response was due to debris getting sucked into earth's atmosphere. Geosynchronous debris remains forever AND is much harder to track. Furthermore the future of space is not manned space travel. The future is robots - such as the spacecraft that must somehow survive in a debris strewn geosynchronous orbit.

Like the anti-ballistic missile treaty, a non-proliferation treaty, an international agreement to modify nuclear power plants all over the world to make its uranium less bomb grade, the Oslo Accords, stem cell research, innovations in energy consumption, quantum physics, global warming, etc; we had an administration that advocated more litter in space because the political agenda dictated militarization of space. We needed bigger dics. Litter is not a threat (or deficits don't matter - same mindset).

An extremist legacy directly traceable to politics and with open contempt for science lives on. As if Obama does not have enough American advocated disasters to deal with.