“Ground Control to Admiral Tom, commencing countdown missiles armed.” Is anybody else out there not buying the reasoning for shooting down this malfunctioning spy satellite? The whole thing went from no big deal to an urgent matter of public safety in a week or so. Why? If you ask the Russians or the Chinese, you’ll probably hear that Bush wants to test his new toy AKA the missile defense shield. I’m not biting off on that one either.
The military will attempt to shoot down a crippled spy satellite some time in the next two weeks, senior officials said on Thursday, laying out a high-tech plan to intercept the large spacecraft over the Pacific Ocean just before it tumbles uncontrollably back to earth with toxic fuel aboard.
President Bush ordered the action to prevent any possible contamination from that hazardous rocket fuel on board, and not out of any concern that parts of the spacecraft might survive and its secrets be revealed, officials said. The challenging mission to demolish it instead on the fringes of space will rely on an unforeseen use of ship-based weapons developed to defend against ballistic missile attacks. That makes it a real-world test both of the nation’s antiballistic missile systems and its antisatellite capabilities, even though the Pentagon said that they were not using the exercise to test their most exotic weapons or send a message to any adversaries.
What I really think is going on here, is that there is some kind of tech and/or data on that satellite that they don’t want falling into “enemy” hands. For a day or so after they first announced that this thing was coming down, news accounts mentioned the concern. Since then, nothing more about it. Now it’s all about the fuel hazard. Right. Speaking for myself, if there is some kind of top secret hocus pocus on that thing, I too would rather not see it fall into enemy hands. We are in debt up to our ears, and I’m likely still making PAYMENTS on the damned technology!Â
