Giant Satellite Barreling Towards Earth

[Hippie Staff]

A satellite the size of a grey hound bus, containing 1000 gallons of toxic fuel, is coming to earth - the problem is, no one seems to know where it is supposed to land, or do they know - and the reason they are going to try to shoot it in space, is because they know it's headed towards a crowded city?? War ships in the Pacific are ready to shoot it down - I'll give y'all one guess as to which Coast it's headed to...

------------- (excerpt from today's news)


A volatile stock market, rising gasoline costs, the specter of terrorism, climate change, an ongoing two-front war, presidential primaries, drug violence ... all that's really great, but we need something else to worry about.


Well, here it is. A U.S. spy satellite is going to hit the Earth sometime during the first week of March. Trouble is, no one seems sure just exactly when it will hit. Or exactly where. Or exactly which parts of the satellite will survive re-entry.

Part one of the bad news is that this satellite weighs 5,000 pounds, and experts are expecting about half of it to survive re-entry and end up in someone's front yard or in their oatmeal or on the ocean floor no one's real sure where.

Part two of the bad news is that the satellite has thrusters that use an extremely toxic rocket fuel called hydrazine. Part three of the bad news is that the satellite carries some super-secret equipment, such as a sophisticated imaging sensor.

The Pentagon plans to shoot it down within the next two weeks, before it tumbles from orbit, because the rocket; fuel it carries could be a danger to the people..

The operation will be carried out from a Navy ship ( IN THE PACIFIC - AHEM AHEM) that will fire a missile modified for the task, which resembles shooting down a ballistic missile warhead as it begins to re-enter the atmosphere.

If the satellite is not intercepted, it will tumble out of control into the atmosphere in early March.

[Buffalo Head '75]

A satellite the size of a grey hound bus, containing 1000 gallons of toxic fuel, is coming to earth - the problem is, no one seems to know where it is supposed to land, or do they know - and the reason they are going to try to shoot it in space, is because they know it's headed towards a crowded city?? War ships in the Pacific are ready to shoot it down - I'll give y'all one guess as to which Coast it's headed to...

------------- (excerpt from today's news)


A volatile stock market, rising gasoline costs, the specter of terrorism, climate change, an ongoing two-front war, presidential primaries, drug violence ... all that's really great, but we need something else to worry about.


Well, here it is. A U.S. spy satellite is going to hit the Earth sometime during the first week of March. Trouble is, no one seems sure just exactly when it will hit. Or exactly where. Or exactly which parts of the satellite will survive re-entry.

Part one of the bad news is that this satellite weighs 5,000 pounds, and experts are expecting about half of it to survive re-entry and end up in someone's front yard or in their oatmeal or on the ocean floor no one's real sure where.

Part two of the bad news is that the satellite has thrusters that use an extremely toxic rocket fuel called hydrazine. Part three of the bad news is that the satellite carries some super-secret equipment, such as a sophisticated imaging sensor.

The Pentagon plans to shoot it down within the next two weeks, before it tumbles from orbit, because the rocket; fuel it carries could be a danger to the people..

The operation will be carried out from a Navy ship ( IN THE PACIFIC - AHEM AHEM) that will fire a missile modified for the task, which resembles shooting down a ballistic missile warhead as it begins to re-enter the atmosphere.

If the satellite is not intercepted, it will tumble out of control into the atmosphere in early March.

nice... I am on the east coast so I am good. I am sure the fallout from the missile debris will be fine. why worry? The same people who brought you the Iraq War, radiation testing, and Hiroshima are on it. I am sure it will all be just fine.

I always thought it would be cool if the pacific ocean glowed.

[Hippie Staff]

I'm keeping a watchful eye here on the West coast.

http://www.happyhippie.com/images/satellitewatch.jpg

[LIBRA]

whoa thats crazy. Like the pacific needs anymore toxins in it, with all the oil spills this could only be a disastor. A spy satalite????? wtf!?!?

[Buffalo Head '75]

I'm keeping a watchful eye here on the West coast.

http://www.happyhippie.com/images/satellitewatch.jpg

hey... be careful, that thing is aiming for your head! LOL

[Hippie Staff]

The gov. has just issued a statement today saying they will pay for any damage it causes. This thing is going to hit a city.

http://www.tlb2.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/satelite_dish.jpg

[musicguy]

They woulda gotten less heat (the govt) if they just didnt directly say and just secretly prepare for it. I mean nobaody would have to know if they just vaporized it in the atmosphere. I sure would have rathered just stay outta the sittuation.

[Buffalo Head '75]

They woulda gotten less heat (the govt) if they just didnt directly say and just secretly prepare for it. I mean nobaody would have to know if they just vaporized it in the atmosphere. I sure would have rathered just stay outta the sittuation.

um, how would they just "vaporize" it without anyone knowing?

Vern - gee, what was that streak through the sky.

Earnest - musta just been one of those government funded vaporizing missles. Now what I mean, Vern?

[Buffalo Head '75]

The gov. has just issued a statement today saying they will pay for any damage it causes. This thing is going to hit a city.

http://www.tlb2.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/satelite_dish.jpg

I pick Salt Lake City. :-)

Sorry Mitt.

[LIBRA]

ha ha great cartmen link meg,lol

[musicguy]

um, how would they just "vaporize" it without anyone knowing?

Vern - gee, what was that streak through the sky.

Earnest - musta just been one of those government funded vaporizing missles. Now what I mean, Vern?Or maybe its a shooting star
im just saying id rather not have known if it has nothing to do with me, and no ones gonna get killed.

[Hippie Staff]

you think the military will actually hit it?

[Buffalo Head '75]

Or maybe its a shooting star
im just saying id rather not have known if it has nothing to do with me, and no ones gonna get killed.

are you an inactivist. a shooting star? trust me, you will be able to tell the difference between a shooting star AND A MISSILE!

[Buffalo Head '75]

you think the military will actually hit it?

I am sure they will hit it... and then all the debris will hit us. or the radiation will pollute the ocean.

somehow they will turn something that would've killed 10 people into something that will effect millions.

that is what they do best.

[unclejoe]

got this at military.com

US: Satellite Shoot-Down Not Offensive
Associated Press | February 15, 2008 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is trying to convince foreign countries that the Pentagon's plan to shoot down a dying spy satellite is not a test of a program to kill their orbiting communications and intelligence capabilities.

The State Department has instructed U.S. diplomats around the world to inform their host governments that the operation, which could be conducted as early as next week, is aimed solely at protecting people that could be affected by about 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel on the bus-sized satellite now hurtling toward earth.

"Our role is to reassure nations around the world as to the nature of what we are tying to do," spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. "It's an attempt to try to protect populations on the ground."

In a cable sent to all U.S. embassies abroad, diplomats were told to draw a clear distinction between the upcoming attempt and last year's test by China of a missile specifically designed to take out satellites, which was criticized by the United States and other countries.

"This particular action is different than any actions that, for example, the Chinese may have taken in testing an anti-satellite weapon," McCormack told reporters. "The missions are quite different and the technical aspects of the missions are quite different."

Other than intent, he said the key difference is that the Pentagon's planned shoot-down will be done at a much lower altitude than that of the Chinese, whose 2007 destruction of a satellite left a large debris field in orbit. The U.S. plan, it is hoped, will leave little in the way of debris that could complicate efforts to place future satellites in orbit.

U.S. officials said the satellite is carrying fuel called hydrazine that could injure or even kill people who are near it when it hits the ground. That reason alone, they said, persuaded President Bush to order the shoot-down.

The Pentagon has predicted a fairly high chance - as much as 80 percent - of hitting the satellite, which will be about 150 miles up before it enters Earth's atmosphere when a single missile will be fired from a Navy cruiser in the northern Pacific Ocean. If it misses, there may be a second shot, officials say.

Left alone, the satellite would be expected to hit Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft would be expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over several hundred miles.

Known by its military designation US 193, the satellite was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.



and at wikipedia.org in today's news
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_military_to_shoot_down_errant_spy_satellite

there are specific details in the wikipedia article that seem to have been 'left out' of the mainstreaming media.

[CowboyHippy]

if they hit it, and i think 80 precent is an overestimation on their part

if they hit it in space 150 miles up thats about 88 miles outside the atmosphere. the peices would hopefully be small enough that they would desintegrate, and all the tozins and such would be handled by mother natures radiation shield, the atmosphere

that does not scare me

i give them 40% chance of hitting it on the first one, if they miss and shoot twice i'd give them 80% chance on the second shot. if they hit it the second time they still have a "wmd" to use the term against the administration floating around up there to contend with. if they miss 2 times, now we have a decent size satellite, and 2 wmd's up there.

i am surprised bush hasnt propose shooting it with a gold plated rocket full of cash. he likes throwing money at problems he has no chance in hell of resolving.

[PEACE FROG]

Give this satellite an honorary law degree and send it hunting with Dick Cheney.

[LIBRA]

^^ ha ha ha!!!

So whats the latest news?

[CowboyHippy]

^^ ha ha ha!!!

So whats the latest news?

latest news, i live in michigan and if it touches down in my backyard i'll have it turned into yard art before they can properly pronounce nuclear

[NCW_Woodnymph]

LOL! Hooray for radioactive lawn art. :D

I am a little concerned. I live nearish to the Pacific coast. It seems to me that if there was a good chance that it wouldn't cause a problem then they wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm have flashbacks of Deep Impact. Wasn't that movie based in Seattle? This could really suck. :(

:hippie:

[crazylegs]

I never liked the Greyhound bus. Have you ever gone in one of those little bathrooms in the back? Whoa!

[Buffalo Head '75]

LOL! Hooray for radioactive lawn art. :D

I am a little concerned. I live nearish to the Pacific coast. It seems to me that if there was a good chance that it wouldn't cause a problem then they wouldn't have mentioned it. I'm have flashbacks of Deep Impact. Wasn't that movie based in Seattle? This could really suck. :(

:hippie:

you will be ok. the chances of being hit by satellite debris are really, really small. Even with the military handling it, very small.

I would be more worried if you were in that space shuttle that is up there right now. Nothing like a heat seeker coming into the sky when you are in a big metal box that does nothing BUT gives off heat.

but seriously, Seattle will be cool.