All your satellites are berong to us!

Quote :

"• Chinese use a missile to ram and destroy an old, orbiting satellite • Experts: China now may have ability to knock out U.S. GPS and spy satellites • Washington issues formal diplomatic protest WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military. According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it. The test took place on January 11. (Watch why the U.S. has protested the missile strike Video) Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center." A U.S. official, who would not agree to be identified, said the event was the first successful test of the missile after three failures. The official said that U.S. "space tracking sensors" confirmed that the satellite is no longer in orbit and that the collision produced "hundreds of pieces of debris," that also are being tracked. The United States logged a formal diplomatic protest. "We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. Several U.S. allies, including Canada and Australia, have also registered protests, and the Japanese government said it was worrisome. "Naturally, we are concerned about it from the viewpoint of security as well as peaceful use of space," said Yashuhisa Shiozaki, chief cabinet secretary. He said Japan has asked the Chinese government for an explanation. The United States has been able to bring down satellites with missiles since the mid-1980s, according to a history of ASAT programs posted on the Union of Concerned Scientists Web site. In its own test, the U.S. military knocked a satellite out of orbit in 1985. Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will "deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so." The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests." Low Earth-orbit satellites have become indispensable for U.S. military communications, GPS navigation for smart bombs and troops, and for real-time surveillance. The Chinese test highlights the satellites' vulnerability. "If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide security issues. "The thing that is surprising and disturbing is that [the Chinese] have chosen this moment to demonstrate a military capability that can only be aimed at the United States," he said."

1/18/2007 11:21:33 PM

*yawn*

1/18/2007 11:24:41 PM

What could they possibly put in that diplomatic protest? THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. CHINA DID WHAT WE DID 20 YEARS AGO!!!

1/18/2007 11:24:44 PM

we should fight this new developement by giving them more trade concessions.

on topic, if it took 3 tests to do this, how many missiles do they even have? would they have enough to actually hurt our communications or to just be annoying?

1/18/2007 11:26:30 PM

this happened on jan 11th btw

1/18/2007 11:26:48 PM

CNN was busy.

1/18/2007 11:29:09 PM

who the hell knew the Chinese knew how to build rockets?

1/18/2007 11:32:28 PM

wouldn't it be saterrites?

1/18/2007 11:39:59 PM

Quote :

"Washington issues formal diplomatic protest"

you got to love america sometimes. someone builds something that america doesn't like and they go crying to mommy and protest. someone needs to let the gov. know that they aren't the only military in the world.

Quote :

"who the hell knew the Chinese knew how to build rockets?"

i'm guessing that was sarcasm since they invented rockets way back when...

I can't wait for another country to protest that america has guns and a military lol.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 12:01 AM. Reason : fda]

1/19/2007 12:00:18 AM

Quote :

"I can't wait for another country to protest that america has guns and a military lol."

USA USA USA!!!

1/19/2007 12:08:02 AM

i protest! they have WMD...we must invade!

1/19/2007 12:09:43 AM

Does China deliver to Delray Beach?

1/19/2007 12:24:16 AM

I have a feeling this will up N.Korea. They've been mighty quiet lately, and our boy Kim Jung ill

gets a little jealous of these type of things.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 1:01 AM. Reason : /]

1/19/2007 1:00:59 AM

Worst inferiority complex ever.

1/19/2007 1:18:11 AM

Quote :

" I can't wait for another country to protest that america has guns and a military lol."

Wait? They do this shit constantly. This is how the world stage works. Someone does something you don't like, you go to complain about it and then we talk it over.

China will be like "We wirr not use our missires on USA" and we'll be like "Ok, good" and then we will silently prepare some method of avoiding these missiles, just in case.

1/19/2007 8:39:10 AM

Quote :

"A satellite in geosynchronous orbit circles the earth once each day. The time it takes for a satellite to orbit the earth is called its period. For a satellite's orbit period to be one sidereal day, it must be approximately 35,786 kilometers (19,323 nautical miles or 22,241 statute miles) above the earth's surface. That is a lot higher than the Shuttle ever goes (usually about 300 kilometers). We calculate this height using, what are today, common geometric formulas."

from: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/satellites/geo-high.html

there is no way they can take out tv or gps yet

1/19/2007 9:30:13 AM

Yes, there is NO way

1/19/2007 9:47:33 AM

Quote :

"All your satellites are berong to us!"

hahaha

1/19/2007 9:51:38 AM

^^ hitting something 572 miles away verses 22,200 miles away

we are fine right now buddy

1/19/2007 9:59:21 AM

This is actually a pretty rational move by the Chinese; I think one commentator put it as being a classic Cold War-style move. President Bush says back in August that he doesn't want to talk about some sort of global ban on satellite-busting weapons. At this point, only the United States and Russia have demonstrated the capability to do so. The Chinese, uncomfortable with this, decide to demonstrate that they too can pull this feat off, most likely in hopes of getting the Americans to reconsider and perhaps begin work on some sort of anti-satellite treaty. I guess from their perspective, they'd rather avoid the arms race knowing that it's going to cost a lot, and that they'll always be behind the Americans, yet they'll still do it if necessary.

1/19/2007 10:26:40 AM

Yeah, but my missile is bigger than your missile!

1/19/2007 11:04:18 AM

Quote :

"^^ hitting something moving 572 miles away verses stationary 22,200 miles away "

You realize that in both cases, the kill vehicle more or less coasts in a vacuum to a position that is calculated well in advance, right? In both cases, the biggest challenge is hitting a spot at the right velocity by main engine cut off. Inertia takes care of the rest. There's a cunt hair's difference between the two.


And I'm sure you know that China is launching a lunar orbiter this year, right? The technology to do that is more than enough to hit a fucking geo stationary satellite.

1/19/2007 6:33:58 PM

Well, we've been allowing Chinese nationals to attend our top engineering universities for decades (NCSU included). It doesn't surprise me one bit that they have developed technology to use against us, in fact I have been questioning the rationale for years.

1/19/2007 6:42:16 PM

speeds required to maintain the orbit are about 6800 mph (tangential velocity)

that rocket has to travel at least 25,000 mph to even hope to reach it

and it is 22,200 miles away

very easy to fuck this one up buddy

1/19/2007 6:44:48 PM

remember a different unit system destroyed a mars mission

it isnt fool proof

dont forget that there are 12 satellites available at any location on the planet to determine your location

you only need three

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 6:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/19/2007 6:45:46 PM

You have a talent for following stupid statements with even stupider ones. Let's just go ahead with the formality of saying you don't know what you are talking about. No amount of wikipedia searches is going to change that.

1/19/2007 7:54:39 PM

this was their fourth test

our satellites are fine buddy

they havent demonstrated anything

im showing how people can fuck up

and you are just saying blah blah blah

1/19/2007 9:07:47 PM

please god dont destroy the direct tv satellites

1/19/2007 9:37:24 PM

i hope they dont fuck with the tv

because then something might actually get done

1/19/2007 9:46:49 PM

Quote :

"Well, we've been allowing Chinese nationals to attend our top engineering universities for decades (NCSU included). It doesn't surprise me one bit that they have developed technology to use against us, in fact I have been questioning the rationale for years."

Maybe if we issued them more visas so that they would stay and contribute to the United States instead of being forced to go back to China...

1/20/2007 1:22:36 AM

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2556823,00.html

Woohoo! I called it. Probably not the brightest way for China to convince the US to come to the negotiating table. It may just accelerate White House efforts to develop new space weapons.

Quote :

"China signalled yesterday that its first missile strike against an orbiting satellite was intended to force the US into talks aimed at abolishing weapons in space."

1/21/2007 5:40:41 AM

obviously they're new at the whole USA approach to negotiations vs. weapons development

pwn!

1/21/2007 8:50:55 AM

They have a strong bargaining position, too, since we need satellites a lot more to defend Taiwan more than they need them to attack Taiwan.

1/21/2007 11:50:58 AM

let them have taiwan

who cares.

1/21/2007 2:04:44 PM

Well, we promised awhile back to protect Taiwan from aggressiondespite the fact that we won't even have official diplomatic relations with them. That's more so a fault of the importance of China to our economy.

1/21/2007 3:35:02 PM

I would throw in $5 if they took out the MTV satellite

1/21/2007 3:36:47 PM

I read an interesting article in Aviation Week & Space Technology (one of the regularly read journals in the aerospace industry) that speculated that China's ASAT test was in part a demonstration of the lack of coordination/control by the central government of the military.

The fact that it took several days for their Foreign ministry to release a full statement probably means that the leadership was caught off guard by the test, even if the military previously warned other nations through military channels. Reinforcing this belief is the fact that the first mentions of the test in Chinese media were wire articles from foreign media sources. Considering how the Chinese have been operating a smooth diplomatic machine over the last several years, this sort of delay was uncharacteristic of them for such a significant action, opening their actions up to unnecessarily international speculation.

AWS&T believes that while the government as a whole is in favor of an ASAT ban (in particular because they're probably planning to deploy more and more satellites in the near future), the military is preparing just in case the Americans prove less than reasonable on the subject.

Still, they say that the central leadership will probably be pulling a bit on the military's leash to ensure that they don't pull another stunt like this again in the near future.

2/1/2007 3:56:12 PM

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/print?id=2841745

Wonderful, China didn't account for the possible debris afterwards...or did they

2/2/2007 4:02:23 PM