About the Pentagon shooting down one of its own satellites

[xiphias]

So, the Pentagon is preparing to shoot down one of its own spy satellites, prior to the satellite's orbit decay and fall to earth. They claim that the reason for this is to make sure that it breaks into enough pieces that none of it will survive re-entry, purely as a safety issue -- they don't want it to fall on anything important and hurt anyone.

Of course, when China shot down one of its own weather satellites on January 11, the US protested, pointing out that that action caused a lot of space debris and endangered other satellites, as well as it being a bad precedent for the militarization of space.

They've designed a special missile for this purpose.

A Pentagon official has stated that "this is not a test of an anti-satellite weapons system." I wish that we had a press corps with could have followed up with the obvious next question: "So, you're shooting down a satellite. If you're not using an anti-satellite weapons system, what ARE you using?"

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Of course, when China shot down one of its own weather satellites on January 11, the US protested, pointing out that that action caused a lot of space debris and endangered other satellites, as well as it being a bad precedent for the militarization of space.

Though I can't remember the source, apparently the debris from this shot is expected to be much less and to scatter over a much smaller area, and much of the Chinese debris will remain in orbit for many years. Something to do with altitude/apogee.