Shooting Down That Spy Satellite

Our government minders must think we are really, really dumb. I cannot believe they expect us to swallow the story that, because there is some hydrazine rocket fuel on-board a spy satellite, and because the satellite's orbit is decaying, that the satellite poses an unacceptable risk and must be "shot down." That's nearly as dumb as saying a gasoline tanker poses a risk because it holds flammable gasoline, and that's why we are firing a rocket-propelled grenade against it.

Hydrazine and nitric acid are widely-used rocket fuels. The Titan series of boosters used this particular hypergolic combination. So, we've fired off many, many tanker-trucks full of the stuff through the atmosphere before, fully aware of the dangers of crashing rockets. No one is seriously-worried that a few pounds of it might come back as part of a crashing satellite's thruster system.

And what does "shot down" mean anyway in the context of space? It won't get "shot down," in the manner of a plane. Instead, it will break into thousands of pieces, and like that satellite the Chinese "shot down" last year, poison the useful orbits these satellites use with junk that will persist for years. And they ARE useful orbits - otherwise, the spy satellite wouldn't be there at all. And even though the satellite is in a lower orbit than the one the Chinese destroyed, it will still take years for the debris to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

No, something else is up. The U.S. wants to show off its anti-satellite capability, particularly to the Chinese, repercussions to ourselves be damned. Like the fact we won't be able to use those orbits again for a very long time. It's like shooting young people as a form of birth control. Effective, but stupid. Part and parcel of life in Bush's America.

But it's the general contempt for people's intelligence that's the most worrying. The Bushies aren't even trying anymore. Not even a cow would buy this story. And yet they think it's good media spin.