Spy Satellite

[Someday]

I'm intrigued.
As many are aware, the US is about to shoot down their own out of control satellite. They are not using any new technology, just some antimissile technology that has been tested successfully on ICBM's at the same or higher altitudes.

Why the big deal? Why is the US making such a show of this? Why did they even bother to tell us the satellite was out of control? Why make a big deal of it? Why the ruse about rocket fuel hydrazine dangers to the public? If anyone hasn't noticed, This is a common rocket fuel, and we have been subjected to it raining down on us many times every time a rocket launch fails. For example, this explosion happened virtually on the launch pad. The explosion was so close to inhabited regions that it sent nearby observers running for cover in a purpose-built shelter and incinerated cars in a NASA parking lot. The second stage of the Delta 7000 series had 6 metric tons of fuel consisting of nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) and Aerozine-50 (a 50/50 mix of *hydrazine* and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, UDMH). All three of those chemicals are liquid at room temperature, toxic and very reactive - UDMH and N2O4 are pretty much just as nasty as hydrazine.
So, you've got an explosion right on the Cape that blew tons of toxic waste into the air. What happened? Some cars were incinerated. No one was poisoned.
The Columbia exploded right over top of Texas, it too carried this rocket fuel and no reports of anyone being harmed by it have surfaced. Space programs have been blowing up hydrazine-fueled rockets for decades. They don't seem worried about launching them over our heads do they?

Why are the Chinese and the Russians so upset? They have both blown up satellites in the past. This one will be a much less space polluting occurrence because unlike the Chinese interceptor and target, the US missile won't reach orbital velocity so any debris from the missile will fall right back to Earth (in a matter of minutes). The satellite itself is so low that it's about to fall back to Earth due to atmospheric friction (by early March). Since it's so hard to change orbits, all of the debris from the satellite will be in that same low orbit . The mess will clean itself up in days or weeks. The debris will never climb high enough to threaten other satellites or future space missions. Debris from the Chinese test is still orbiting around us as we speak, causing a danger to anything that encounters it in orbit.

I can't help but think that the US is drumming this whole thing up for some other reason. I'm not even sure the system failed immediately. The way it has been fed to the press, I almost believe they wanted it to fail, a drone of some sort. A bus sized clay pigeon. If so, why? They know the US can already shoot down satellites and ICBM's with several different technologies, including ASAT missiles that were carried up high by an F-15 and then used to shoot down satellites. Even Japan has used this particular missile to shoot down scud type missles 100 miles above the earth. Is this all part of the "new space race"?

Or is it all for our safety, an example of a government that is here simply to help us?

Any thoughts?

Blessings

[Sazzy]

A cover story perhaps? Maybe they weren't using this particular missile technology, maybe they used something totally new and tossed out this story to cover their butts if anything untoward happened.

I read somewhere that the US were cagy about where the satellite was supposed to land, everytime the question was asked, they hedged. Perhaps it was gonna land in the middle of a big city and kill a load of people and they were afraid of getting slammed with a lawsuit to equal the national debt. Who knows really? It's the government....they have their own agenda beneath that 'We just wanna do what's best for the people' facade.