News The Return of Cosmos 954
posted by on February 15 at 12:59 PM
How are we to read this piece of news?
WASHINGTON — A Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean will try an unprecedented shoot-down of an out-of-control, school-bus-size spy satellite loaded with a toxic fuel as it begins its plunge to Earth, national-security officials said Thursday.President Bush made the decision because it was impossible to predict where a tank containing the fuel might land in an uncontrolled descent.
Here is one way of reading it:
Motives debatedThe announcement set off an immediate debate on defense blogs and among experts who questioned whether there was an ulterior motive. Some experts said the military was seizing an opportunity to test its controversial missile-defense system against a satellite target.
But others noted that the Standard Missile-3 has successfully been tested against warhead targets, which are far smaller than the satellite.
“There has to be another reason behind this,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a liberal arms-control advocacy organization. “In the history of the Space Age, there has not been a single human being who has been harmed by man-made objects falling from space.”
There is probably truth in this reading. But there is a better (more poetic) way to read all of this—the falling spy satellite (only launched a year ago—another waste of our money), and the attempt to solve its death in space with a piece of dead (SDI—Star Wars) technology. The fall of the US 193 is to the Bush era what Cosmos 954 was to the Soviet period. US 193 marks the end of Bush (and the hegemony of the kind of power he represents), and also it captures the essential irrationality of his presidency and form of power.
Nice stretch Charles.
Sorry your "summation" doesn't pass the sniff test.
Go wash your fingers and try sniffing them again.
Where did the Stranger get this guy? Why hasn't his posting priveleges been removed already?
The real motive is to test their intercept techniques.
But I never said that.
Pretend it's all about the volatile chemicals. Then buy the fake cover story about them not wanting the tech to fall into enemy hands.
The truth is what it is.
I think it also has to do with the test the Chinese did last year where they shot down one of their own satellites. Story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/18/china.missile/index.html
WHAT??? I was witg you until yot went into cockadoodle whacko-land in that last graf. Seriously, though, whether hydrazine can be considered "toxic" is pretty debatable (carcinogenic, yes, but not really toxic), so this is just a chance for George & Co. to play with their toys.
That's a very pretty analogy, Charles. Thanks.
Will in Seattle nails it. Then there's all the secret weapons technology that we don't know about.
I think its more likely the spy satellite contains Amanda's other bra, and its essential to destroy the DNA on it. Otherwise people in high places would be embarrassed. And Cheney's horse, who actually killed that girl in Italy due to the size of his enormous Johnson, would be found out.
@6 - thanks.
Look, when they tell you they're doing a test for missile intercepts, you have to realize those test are not just fixed, they're fixed so much that they're not even slightly believable.
By not making a big issue of this, they can see if it even works at all.
And, if it doesn't they can just pretend they weren't really trying that hard, it's wasn't a big deal, and we should just send a few billion more to fund fake intercept projects that never worked and never will in the real world circumstances we have to deal with.
But, if Amanda took off her bra for me, I might be willing to consider any alternatives she had to offer.
I would agree that this is probably an intercept test. The other possibility is that there is confidential equipment and/or data on board that may not be destroyed on re-entry. I really doubt it's because of the fuel tank.
Charles missed the mark by calling this dead SDI technology. This is the new shit.
I'm also fairly certain that President Obama, Clinton, or Nader would be doing the exact same thing as President Bush in this case.
Yes, this "dead SDI technology" sure was a waste of money. If only someone had launched a nuclear armed missle at us so the money wouldn't have been wasted! Darn.
the real reason behind this intercept attempt have been stated in previous posts, but to reiterate, the reason they are attempting to do this is to respond to the chinese military and to protect sensitive military hardware.
it is possible, but not likely, that some of the hardware would remain intact after re-entry. destroying the object in space will mitigate the risk of a repeat of the incident a few years back when the US Navy spy plane had to crash land on chinese soil. they returned the plane to us in boxes several months after they disassembled it and studied it.
but more importantly, the chinese destruction of a spy satellite that was in geosyncronus orbit was an incredibly provactive move because our military is so dependent upon satellites for communication and navigation.
imagine how disadvanged we would be if our spy satellites were attacked and we lost our "eyes". they imagine how disadvantaged we would be if they attacked our GPS satellites and our air force and army couldnt navigate. so much of our military technology is dependent on GPS it would absolutely cripple us to lose it.
so we need to respond in kind that we, too, can destroy satellites.
if you want to try to make some mumbo jumbo military analogy to history and all that, this isn't like star wars and the end of the soviet union.
this is more akin to U2 spy flights over the USSR, and the technological race to build SAMs that could reach the incredibly high altitudes that the spy planes flew.
that wasn't symbolic of the end of political power or the death of anything. it was the birth of a new age, and occured around the same time as the cuban missle crisis, which was the closest the world has come to nuclear war.
china is going to challenge our military superiority, and space is going to be the new battle ground. we're over dependent on space-based military hardware, and if we are challenged in space we could see a whole new arms race and opportunities for international incidents between the chinese and american military.
this is the end of nothing. it is only the beginning.
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