Thursday, February 21, 2008

Satellite disinformation


This is just such an obvious case of disinformation by DOD that I’m surprised no one has commented on it yet.

MISSILE fired from a US Navy warship has hit a dying spy satellite 247km above the Pacific Ocean but it is not yet known whether the strike has nullified the threat of a toxic fuel landing in a populated area, the Pentagon says.

Australia is one of the countries that has been placed on alert because of the risk.
The SM-3 missile was fired from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific at about 10.26 EST (2.26pm AEDT) and scored a direct hit on the bus-sized satellite, the Pentagon said.

Theres nothing unusual about a satellite re-entering the atmosphere, it’s a common event. The “toxic fuel” was hydrazine, dangerous yes, but it would have burnt up well before reaching Earth. There was never a threat to anyone. The real reason for this little bit of target practice is that the Chinese tested there own killer sat system last year. The Americans are demonstrating what they can do in return. As well it’s a test of the US Navy’s Aegis Combat System which has been upgraded to take down ballistic missiles so it would have been a good test of the Navy’s new hardware. The exercise will bound to give pause to any missile happy Iranians or North Koreans. The success is a good sign for Australia too as our new destroyers will be getting the Aegis system.

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