[meteorite-list] Breaking news-- satellite hit

[Rob Matson]

Hi All,

Since the orbital ground track of USA-193 took it over western Africa
about 45 minutes after impact, it will be interesting to hear if any
debris ended up in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia.  There
was also the opportunity for nice "debris meteors" off the west coast
of South Africa.  Don't know if anyone was watching.

The choice of orbit to hit was an interesting one.  From a safety
standpoint, it was not the best.  The post-impact ground track
continued over Canada (B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Hudson
Bay, Quebec, and the northern tip of Labrador).  Most debris would
not enter this early, but still there were other orbits that would
have crossed much less land in the critical first, post-impact orbit.

One possibility is that they wanted to image the intercept from
Haleakala (AMOS).  But the more likely explanation is that they were
deliberately trying to avoid ground tracks that crossed militarily
undesirable countries in the orbits immediately following impact
(e.g. North Korea, China, Russia, Iran).  The ascending node pass
just north of Hawaii certainly qualified on that score, so that seems
like the most logical explanation.

The hydrazine aspect was a total smokescreen.  Complete B.S., which
news stations should have been embarrassed to report as the "main
reason".  The government/military was not in the least bit concerned
about the hydrazine injuring or killing someone on the ground because
it was not even a 6-sigma possibility.  You should all be offended
that the U.S. government thinks you are that stupid.  Why couldn't
they have just been honest:  WE DON'T WANT ANY REMNANTS OF HIGHLY
CLASSIFIED TECHNOLOGY ANALYZED BY UNFRIENDLY COUNTRIES.  AND BESIDES,
WE'RE SALIVATING AT THE OPPORTUNITY TO TEST AN ABM AGAINST A
DIFFICULT TARGET.  It's really that simple.  The timing of the
intercept more or less proves it.  --Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com]On Behalf Of Bob
Loeffler
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 9:34 PM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Breaking news-- satellite hit


Here's the story on MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23265613/ 

Regards,

Bob