US to risk breaching UN militarised space treaty for a faulty & toxic US Spy Sat.

Friday February 15, 2008 00:01

by gerbil afterburner - chicken lickins

.........now that's a long & meaningful title.......naught pithy in that...........

President Bush has signed an executive order which will allow the US military to shoot down one that country's satelites before its diminishing orbit means the loss of the Hydragin gas it holds.

They say they're doing this to safeguard lives. Hydragin as we all might guess is a very dangerous substance. They're not saying they're doing this to have a bit of practise at a remarkably difficult exercise they have not officially admitted to having done before. For many good reasons such as incapability, implausibility and the usual reliable Star Wars diplomacy crap.

RTE has reported the satelite as a "disabled spy satelite". That was the non-sequitor by which the story was originally given publicity in January 2008, but has to date not been confirmed by the few of the 16 US agencies who'd put at spy-sat in orbit. It was the "international herald tribune" who first conjectured (or spun) its identity. For the moment though, rather than wondering what exactly the little box of tricks is, or who used it, we might better wonder where is it going to get shot down, how much are the salvage rights, where will it land after (& naturally if) it is shot down?

The original news report -
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/27/america/satellit...e.php

tonight's mention on RTE (you'd swear there was the remotest chance of hitting Erin)
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0214/satellite.html

the BBC report in which the Pentagon refer to the item as "bird". You'd swear they were playing clay pigeon shooting and not just ensuring mentally handicapped people don't have to breath in Hydroxin.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7245578.stm

other bits & bobs -
if you're thinking of having your own spy-sat you might like to know what's out there no the salvage or shoot at range / market
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_satellite

I look forward to exploring this thread from all angles. Hopefully we shall find opportunity to revisit the UN militarisation of space treaty as well as get less than gullible about stopping Near Earth Asteroids or the merciless Xenu. There will be questions at the US senate intelligence hearing to report on as we reconsider the money spent on affording some spy agencies a sort of google-earth with resolution so high it's on steroids. We may even ask any people left with geiger counters to check it's not Hydroxin that's the big problem but something more sinister. Coz we're generally like that - we get off on sinister. "they" - "them" -

save preference

Comments (10 of 10)

The substance is termed "hydrazine" in Irish English.

by those

Fri Feb 15, 2008 00:18

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazin
2001, Microbiologist Marc Strous from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands discovered that hydrazine is produced from some yeasts, and the open ocean bacterium anammox (Brocadia anammoxidans). They are the only discovered organisms to naturally produce hydrazine. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1109_05....html
If you'd like to buy Hydrazin fuel or want to culture "Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" (the first discovered organism capable of the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium) the only bacteria known to man which produces both rocket fuel & eats sewage (it's true - believe it or not)
you should really go to the popular http://www.eBay.com site. There's a site for everyone. It's a huge internet. But in all honesty you won't get to buy either. Michael O'Leary would be doing budget Virgin galactic rip-offs and you'd have no cryptosporidium in your water supply if you really were on the cutting edge of now test-failed new-technologies. All I regret is how much fucking damage all this cock-sured hubris & paranoia does to the planet I live on.

clarification

by tomeile

Fri Feb 15, 2008 14:38

Today’s Irish Independent features this story under the rather ambiguous headline:

"US missile to blast satellite out of the sky over Ireland"

Which implies that it's going to be shot down while orbiting over Ireland .

But the body of article doesn't suggest that - rather that the satellite ,which is going to be shot down , sometimes passes over Ireland.

"Pentagon officials have announced plans to shoot down a failing spy satellite orbiting over Ireland with a missile from a US navy warship to prevent debris from showering the Earth."

The IAWM should ask for clarification on this .
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/us-m....html

The New Cold War

by Skeptic

Fri Feb 15, 2008 15:19

The US government are relishing this opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Son of Star Wars technology program which was restarted by George W. Bush in early 2001 not long before there was a stand off between US and China over a collision between a Navy spyplane and a Chinese fighter which resulted in the death of the Chinese pilot and the detention of the crew on Hainan island.
Russia and China are the obvious nuclear foes of the US. Putin continues to make rattle his nuclear sabre, mainly to demonstrate his macho bravado combined with his barechested Right Said Fred antics. Meanwhile China's "Haven't I Got An Olypmic Sized Cock" routine and the modernisation of its military continues.

Drivel on Sceptic - you're wrong as usual. time you wrote an article & earned your space.

by gerbil afterburner

Sat Feb 16, 2008 00:29

The only space capable state which has proven the ability to shoot down, disable or take out satelites is of course the PRC. They demonstrated it last year & immediately asked for a new Space Militarisation Treaty just afterwards.

that was reported on this site here
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81711?condense_comments...=true
& on the excellent "space politics" site here -
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2007/01/31/does-china-want...eaty/
that was taken up by the Russians and again this week http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7240796.stm OF course I was pitching the article at the low brows when I mentioned star-wars - because quite simply this is not star-wars technology being tested - it's merely the diplomatic problems.

___________________________

According to CNN the US Navy are going to shoot down "bird" with a specially modified missile. Sounds wonderful. In fact it might give us a clue as to where they plan on splashing it down if not which agency was operating it in the first place ( if we continue the given version that it was just a spy-sat with an unused hydrazine cell on board). Just in case you're as dim as Sceptic - the most probably shooting orbit will be over the Pacific ocean aimed at ditching any break-up waste west of Chile & Peru. Standard drop zone for space debris which led some people to ponder the "peruvian mystery illness" the report on which you may enjoy by scrolling up to the screen & reading the only other article I've ever written. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/14/spy.satell...e.ap/
But at least I've written one.

its skeptic not sceptic

by Anti-sceptic

Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:35

our very own neo-con apologist "sceptic" would never say "cock". I reckon it's not him iosaf!!

Impersonation

by Sceptic

Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:44

Quite right - I am the real Sceptic and someone is using my name. And I don't use vulgarism.

I'm tired or people mindlessly spouting US propaganda on russia

by PutinCharge

Sat Feb 16, 2008 13:04

Its like a knee jerk(!) response whenever putin or russia are mentioned.
just goes to show how effective just repeating a lie over and over is.
maybe folks need to read a little more and stop watching fox news!

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060710/cohen

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HJ25Ag01.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney12052007.html

Welcome to the new US approved cold war folks.

anyone want to follow "space political" fan stuff on the military

Sat Feb 16, 2008 16:13

there is a thread on the shooting down of "bird" at the "space politics" site, a US group who honestly fall well short of reflecting the range of issues & concerns we ought have about "up there". But that said, in the vacuum which is serious monitoring & observation of the space industry (mostly militarised aeronautics but including biotech & nanotech & anyone whose experiments are favoured by zero-grav.) the thread might prove interesting. The connection with the PRC test/demo is being felt over in the states - but that's their psychological problem, & always has been - no other state has ever even dreamt of considering near orbit or more ludicrously beyond the Van Halen belts to Lunar orbit as either spheres of influence or worth cranking up geopolitical tensions. I'd be honest with ye all, (even sceptic the real one & the vulgarisms using fans he brings out & encourages) - The "powers" have messed up space exploration in an extraordinary short time in much the same way they've messed up the environment on the ground in 2 centuries. There's too much garbage up there, been too many lies about what has been achieved, & in the next 40 years anyone who can copy Branson's Virgin Galactic design http://www.virgingalactic.com/ can deliver WMD anywhere on the planet with a very short window of prevention rivalling the old traditional ICBM four minutes. I'd say we're finally entering the moonraker baddie generation. ............Sinister............

http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/02/14/what-um-impact-...bate/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/13/us_spy_satellit...down/

Best coverage is from Wired.com
....."The SM-3 missile that's supposed to do the job is at the heart of the most successful component of the American missile-defense program; unlike other, less reliable interceptors, the SM-3 has hit its targets in 11 of its last 13 tests. Two other Aegis cruisers, armed with similar weapons, will be on standby, in case the initial SM-3 fails to fire, or misses its target......"
(those results were widely regarded as massaged to boot)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/some-time-in-th.html

Over there they've also had a look at Obama's space program potential & at the same time that HMG UK is considering ending its ban on manned flight (no Brits are supposed to go to outerspace) it appears NASA under Obama might end humans in space. He did that in contrast to Clinton who is well into the propaganda value of having humans in space despite the sucess rate of getting them there & back being somewhat tarnished during the Bush years. Obama is quoted as saying he wishes to consider "a practical sense of what investments deliver the most scientific and technological spinoffs — and not just assume that human space exploration, actually sending bodies into space, is always the best investment.” http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/02/16/obama-human-spa...ment/

Most of "capitalist" space is in fact lobbied by three billionaires, the most interesting is a woman. I'll tell you about her again.

Possible date, time & venue for shootdown.

Tue Feb 19, 2008 14:46

Slashdot has reported ""Amateur satellite watcher Ted Molczan notes that a "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAM) has been issued announcing restricted airspace for February 21, between 02:30 and 05:00 UTC, in a region near Hawaii."
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/19/018...m=rss

The Russians have by now declared pretty much the same thing I suggested in the article above. = "they are practising anti-sat weaponry".

An interesting blog (the Federation of American Scientists strategic security)has joined the fray insisting quite logically that you can't shoot down a satelite. You shoot at it, as it moves around you in orbit, and then whatever llittle bits your missle make of it - continue to move around you in orbit....
Very sensible.

http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2008/02/us_plans_test_of_an...t.php

USA has broken Space Treaty .

Thu Feb 21, 2008 09:32

"The United States, the world's top space power, has often accused other countries of vigorously developing military space technology, but faced with the Chinese-Russian proposal to restrict space armaments, it runs in fear from what it claimed to love," - reaction from the Chinese press on th enews that the USA has shot at [not down] one of its satelites at an altitude of 150 miles (247km) while it was travelling at approximately 17,000 miles per hour at 3.26am GMT.

How the US militarisation of Space is being reported :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/21/spaceexpl...n.usa
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21satellite.html?_...login
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7254540.stm

__________________________________________

"new arms race"

....."The US criticised the Chinese when they carried out an anti-satellite test just over a year ago.
Its complaint was that it was a deliberate military move, and that it was shrouded in secrecy. Now, the Americans have used a weapons system that is part of their missile defence programme. Whatever the result, the operation was always going to yield valuable information, both in terms of missile defence and possible future anti-satellite operations. It has not helped the US's public relations cause that the Bush administration opposes a Russian-Chinese draft treaty to ban weapons in space - although many experts see the proposal as flawed, and point out that the US is probably more reliant on the use of satellites than any other country. Washington says it is in favour of the free use of space, but against limiting its military options. Both Washington and Moscow experimented with anti-satellite weapons in the Cold War, and the US shot down a satellite in a test 22 years ago......."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7256218.stm

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US to risk breaching UN militarised space treaty for a faulty & toxic US Spy Sat.

Comments (10 of 10)