U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite

[100pr00f]

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.

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, also have registered protests.

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.

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oh Fuck.




also....








LAWLZ @ humans trying to control what goes on in space.

[Dokuro]

this is somthing to be scard about one of the ways of battle is how queck you can gather information and now tat those commies can take out our eyes we can be left defencles in a war agnst china wich well be coming son acording to nostradomes


ps dosent thes belong in know the ledge

[100pr00f]

no its just random news .....ive been posten things like this for a good month now

[AcidPhosphate69]

Nostradamus was a fucking hack. People like to say he predicted WW2 and shit but what he said was, "the banks of the Hister will overflow." Yeah, maybe Hister sorta sounds like Hitler but seriously...rivers flood once in a while. The dude was just stating shit that could have been true at some time in the future and now people read it and are like, "OMFG, he totally KNeW IT Was going to happen!!11!"

I'm not saying war with China will never happen, I'm saying Nostradamus was a hack.

[Gawd]

I applaud the Chinese.....if you dont want our satelites spying on your Nation then you have every right to make a missle that destroys them. They can mask it behind the notion that these missles are for knocking old unused satelites out and destroy them all you want too.

We cant cry foul over this. We have to just come up with some better stuff.

[TAURO]

LMAO at americans getting all panicky because someone has jepordised their space exclusivity use.

[Gawd]

i know.....we just have to keep everyone else on their toes rather than china keeping us on ours

[GENERAL WISE]

What scares me is the Chinese and Russian defense pact...really why would the #2 and #3 militaries need to help each other in defense?


BTW Chinese and Russians are strong friends of all the countries we consider "axis of evil" as well as those who hatin on us right now (Venezuela).

[Gawd]

....the chinese and russians are friends with those who pay them for arms........their biggest export. we dont buy russian shit or chinese shit....so we are not friendly really. i dont think russias army is any larger than ours the chinese yes.

[M_N]

did you know that that kind of a missile maybe could destroy incoming enemy's intercontinental nuclear missile

[Visionz]

we dont buy russian shit or chinese shit....

You coulda been talkin in terms of arms, which would be true, but in general, we buy ALOT of chinese shit. Wal-mart alone is a prime example, then there's nike's etc.....All that money goes to the chinese goverment, who then buy up billions in US bonds, keeping their currency undervalued on the world market, which in turn lures more factories to be built there. The Chinese goverment are some smart muhfuckas but when they rise to the ranks of a true world power, its mostly gonna be due to the US's own stupidity mixed in with overly-capitalistic corporations saling us out.

[HANZO]

russia and china's relationship starts of militarily. the russian army is big but shit. there were reports of 150,000 crimes commited within the russian army. the russian army is weak now they lack the economical power to build new technologies. china has a lot of money and a very big army, but their army is shit so the russians train the chinese. and now u got the chinese putting there foot down in space.

the question is wat happens if china invade taiwan. america have promised taiwan there protection if china invade. now would it be smart for america to oppose the chinese as now they can shoot down americas aerial advantage. nothin will happen though everyone will carry on with there missile tests trying to scare each other. another cold war.

[Trismegistos]

There is no doubting that China are on their way to achieving their goal of becoming the world's largest superpower.

The economics alone indicate that China could be there economically by 2020-2025.

In the mean time the US is bogged down in middle eastern wars that are not breaking any new ground in terms of technology or tactics.

If there is a conflict between the U.S and China it will be an interesting race to see who can knock out who's satellites the quickest. If the MAD doctrine is adhered to and no nukes are used, we would be back to WW2 tactics and technologies.

Based on the population size of both countries a US invasion of China would be doomed and viceversa.

The question would then be is Taiwan worth fighting for?

Then there would be an escalation in arms for Japan, South Korea and India.

Mind you every country has the right to develop weapons to defend their country. It would be naive to expect other countries just to lay down and accept that the US is technologically superior. They could then be dominated due to this superiority.

Let's hope that there never is a war between superpowers and hopefully one day an end to all wars.

[TAURO]

I can just see it now, by 2040 mandarin/cantonese will become the second language of our children.