The US Navy Shoots At And Hits Failed Satellite

ANO

Let's see if anyone else can do that! No wonder Russia was whining about this. I bet they are changing their collective underwear left and left! From Pat Dollard...

[...] We own the sky...therefore, we own the world. The Russians and the Chinese and, yes, especially the Iranians, are [soiling] their pants right now...[screw] em. [...]

(I edited some content) And, I swiped a picture...



An excerpt from ABC News:

[...] Russia and China have expressed concern about the operation. The Russian Defen[s]e Ministry said it could be used as cover to test a new space weapon. [...]

And, what of it, Putin?? Shut up and think about what this successful mission means.



The Dallas Morning News doesn't have much to say, as usual...even when they DO print something, it might as well be a blank space.

Fox News:

WASHINGTON - A Navy missile soaring 130 miles above the Pacific smashed a dying and potentially deadly U.S. spy satellite and probably destroyed a tank carrying 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel, officials said. Officials had expressed cautious optimism that the missile would hit the satellite, which was the size of a school bus. But they were less certain of hitting the smaller, more problematic fuel tank, whose contents posed what Bush administration officials deemed a potential health hazard to humans if it landed intact. [...]

[...] The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles - not orbiting satellites - launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. EST Wednesday (0326 GMT Thursday), according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite about three minutes later as the spacecraft traveled in polar orbit at more than 17,000 mph. [...]

[...] The use of the Navy missile amounted to an unprecedented use of components of the Pentagon's missile defense system, designed to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles in flight - not kill satellites. The operation was so extraordinary, with such intense international publicity and political ramifications, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, rather than a military commander, was to make the final decision to pull the trigger. [...]

So, now, we can shoot down satellites. This is nothing new to me or most folks in the same class as I but it is cool to witess it for the first publicized event. Make that way cool!

MSLSD has a piece up as well but they are not worthy to have their verbiage on this blog.

The NY Slimes adds a "yeah but" morsel...

[...] Separately, a Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, dismissed suggestions that the operation had been designed to test the nation's missile defense systems or antisatellite capabilities or that the effort had been to destroy secret intelligence equipment. [...]

And, we can now kill just about anything we want now. I wonder if they shot it down so the debris field will encompass Berzerkeley? We could only hope so...or is that change so?

Ace: (via Breitbart TV)

[...] And then basically a bullet has to hit a bullet a hundred plus miles in space.

Remember, the Democrats want to kill missile defense because it, like the surge, doesn't work. [...]

Isn't that the truth. Why anyone admits to being a Democrat these days is truly a mystery to me. They are so wrong on so many levels, it should be alarmingly distressful to even the lamest of democrats.

From the Danger Room:

[...] At a Pentagon press conference today, an unnamed "senior military official" briefed reporters on the details on the satellite take out attempt. "Each day there will be one window," he said. "It will only exist for a matter of tens of seconds, and so you have to be at exactly the right place, exactly the right time, and all criteria have to line up exactly right." [...]

[...] But, despite all the technical criteria, and despite all the layers of bureaucracy, it is the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, who is going to make the call whether or not to launch. [END]

Now we sit back and listen and watch as the whiners of the world begin to fear and fret. Knock knock knockin' on Iran's door....

Buzz and waves at memeorandum...

UPDATE from BBC (being all sympathetic to China and the "USSR") (Graphic)

1 SM-3 missile launched from a US Navy cruiser in Pacific Ocean
2 The three-stage missile headed for collision location, where the relative "closing" speed was expected to be 10km/s (22,000mph)
3 Satellite came in range at altitude of 247km (133 nautical miles), close to edge of Earth's atmosphere
4 Missile made contact with satellite with objective of breaking fuel tank, freeing hydrazine into space
5 Debris expected to be scattered over hundreds of kilometres

WaPo has the usual "yeah but" hit piece...