India intentionally blows up satellite with missile

[gary]

The New York Times is reporting (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/world/asia/india-weather-satellite-missle.html) that India has intentionally test fired a
rocket to shoot down one of its own satellites.

The explosion has created a debris field increasing the chance of other
satellites and spacecraft one day being struck.





https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/world/asia/india-weather-satellite-missle.html

[multiweb]

They must have money to throw away...

[xelasnave]

I presume its a miltary thing.
Take out particular satellites and I expect even many foot soldiers will be taken out of the equation.
Chuna blew up a satellite a while back and I expect that was military driven. Soon we will be posting images of space junk☺

Alex

[Sunfish]

The decisions makers must be insane.

Probably a pointless stunt which demonstrates nothing except the extent to which risks will be taken to tighten control.

What happens if it clips , overshoots and does not burn up?. Does a live missile go whipping around in orbit?

[glend]

Perhaps they were aiming at Pakistan and missed.

[LewisM]

And yet the pathetic Yanks yet again are pushing for their "exceptional" space force that can destroy anything (supposedly) from orbit. They destroy enough on Earth, let alone extending that to orbiting above us like a completely and utterly evil Big Brother.

[astroron]

Isn't this double standards from the yanks and the so called United Nations treaties.
Chase North Korea and nearly start WW3 yet two nuclear weapons nations like India and Pakistan can fire and and test weapons at will with nary a whimper from Dumph or the UN.
BTW these two nations have fought 4 wars since partition in 1948 and have been very close to aiming nuclear weapons at each other.
Both Nations have refused to sign the Nuclear test ban treaty, yet Rat Bag Australia goes against the treaty and supplies India with nuclear fuel, on the promise that the fuel will only be used for peaceful purposes :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Pull this one it's got bells on:eyepop:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Spot on Ron. Double standards abound with the USA and I honestly believe they don’t even realize it.

[multiweb]

I bet they're all pointed at the Russians under your bed. :P

[gary]

AFP are reporting more on the satellite destruction today.



Story here :-
https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/indian-satellite-destruction-creates-debris-field-space-junk-doc-1f67k31

[Stonius]

It's military dog whistling. "just letting everyone else know that we can shoot down your satellites, so don't mess with us'. It's deterrent.


Unfortunately the US started it back in 2008 when they shot down one of their own spy satellites supposedly for 'safety'. Hmmmm


http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2008/1327.html


Now everyone that joins the club has to do it too.


Markus

[Exfso]

Apparently the shrapnel left over is now endangering the ISS. What a stuff up:screwy:

[Stonius]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/02/a-terrible-thing-nasa-condemns-indias-destruction-of-satellite-and-resulting-space-junk


It's interesting though, isn't it? If war broke out and your first strategy would be to shoot down the enemy's satellites, you would immediately endanger your own too. It reminds me a little bit of the nuclear MAD deal. Though I don't suppose spy satellites have to worry about decompression, they could still suffer catastrophic damage from a strike.


M

[LewisM]

Imagine the debris if the short-sighted chest beating morons in Washington had detonated a nuclear weapon on the Moon as they planned...we wouldn’t have an ISS... but lots of moonlets

[billdan]

I would imagine if WW3 broke out the first targets will be the GPS satellites that just about every military mobile device on earth rely on.