Thursday, February 21, 2008

Failed spy satellite shot down

Remember the American spy satellite that ran out of fuel and was set to crash into the Earth? It was ridiculed as Skylab II, because it dredged up memories of the failed United States space station of 30 years ago that crashed into Australia.

Last night the Navy succeeded at shooting down the spy satellite over the Pacific Ocean before it could hit the planet. Most debris will burn up, though some may still hit the Earth's surface within 40 days.

What could have been a humanitarian disaster may now be only a public relations disaster for the current regime. The satellite was launched in 2006, so I suspect its launch or construction was overseen by some Bush crony who doesn't believe in science and thought 2 plus 2 is 5 or that writing out 10 ^ 262 couldn't fit on one page or that the satellite could magically sustain itself in space without fuel. They obviously don't believe in history either, because they didn't learn from Skylab.

The debacle cost the Navy - and the taxpayers - $60,000,000. But - although the Navy had only a 10-second window to fire the missile to shoot down the spacecraft - they managed to do it.

When Bush takes a dump, he probably doesn't have as much precision as the Navy did when it shot down the satellite, preferring instead to cake his Hanes with the mess.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/20/satellite.shootdown)

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