In a world .... where a president is desperate to salvage his legacy ... and his flawed “Star Wars” program ....
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[UPDATE]:
I'm not the only blogger calling bullshit.
This guy takes a more scientific approach. Interesting read.
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Considering how the Bush Administration could screw up eating a ham sandwich, I’m dubious about this plan:
US: Broken Satellite Will Be Shot Down
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon, under orders from President Bush, is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, the White House said Thursday.
U.S. officials said that the option preferred by the administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush made his decision during the past week and asked experts to come up with a way to destoy the satellite. He made the decision to shoot it down because the satellite was carrying the rocket fuel hydrazine, Perino said. Initally the administration believed that the danger from the falling satellite did not pose a large problem, but decided it was best to shoot it down when experts decided that the unused hydrazine did pose a danger.
What could possibly go wrong?!
I’m no, er, rocket scientist, but this whole thing smells fishy to me. Seems the likelihood of success is pretty small, we’re just as likely to miss and screw things up worse, plus don’t these things burn up when they hit the earth’s atmosphere anyway? Remember Skylab?
The whole hydrazine thing sounds completely bogus. Surely that would burn up on re-entry?
Sounds to me like the military doesn’t want any “unfriendly governments” finding this thing. Which strikes me as really insane. We launched our current two-front war thanks to a gang of crazies with boxcutters. Our troops are being taken down by IEDs in Iraq. Why worry about foreign governments finding our old spy satellite technology?
Unless we don't want someone finding out it isn't as good as we said it was.
Anyway, I'm calling bullshit on the whole dog and pony show. It would be nice if someone in the media would find out what's really going on, but I don't hold out much hope for that. In the meantime, an ounce of cynicism is worth a pound of propaganda.
