U.S. Common Sense

During the day, I was torn about what to write about. Like many of you, I was spending the night watching the total eclipse of the moon (and man, isn’t it impressive how it turns red like that). And while watching it, I was wondering if the U.S. Navy’s attempt to shoot down the failed satellite was going to be successful. After coming in, I turned on the TV expecting to see “It’s a hit!” or “U.S. Navy postpones attempt,” but what did I see instead? “New York Times to print front page article on John McCain and Vicki Iseman.” No coverage about the satellite. No coverage about the eclipse. Nope, just the dissecting of a news article about an inappropriate behavior between McCain and a lobbyist, which was somehow tied into the Keating Five scandal. So I said “forget it” and went to bed.

Well, I had a chance to read the news article today, thinking that it would be what I would write about. After all, if McCain was cheating on his wife, accepting gifts from lobbyists, and we need to take him to task for his lack of involvement in the Keating Five, it would have a major impact on the current race. However, the article really was fluff and accusations without any substance. Looks like the New York Times was just looking for a way to increase their lagging sales. So no, I’m not going into it tonight until the New York Times wishes to provide some hard facts and/or apologizes for their poor journalism. Instead, we’re going to cover those who deserve a lot of respect. That’s right, it’s the U.S. Navy.

Talk about having your stars aligned (or many we should say “moon eclipsed”). After years of developing and testing a ballistic missile defense system, coinciding with the failure of a high-tech government satellite, the U.S. Navy was given a real-world test run for their new system. Modifying a SM-3 missile, the Aegis Cruiser Lake Eire took position in the Pacific Ocean and waited for the right moment when the satellite would pass 153 nautical miles overhead. With multiple ground and sky-based radar tracking system providing detailed information to the cruiser, the missile was launched at 10:30pm (at the same time the moon was in full eclipse), taking three minutes to reach its target and hit it directly in the hydrazine fuel tank. Perfect shot. Just one try. Bravo Zulu, Lake Eire!

So what does this mean for us? For starters, it verifies that the technology does work in the real world… at least with targets that are predictable. Can it take out an unexpected ballistic missile? Hopefully we won’t have to find out, but we feel a bit more comfortable about it tonight. And that has China concerned.

If you don’t remember in 2007, China launched an anti-satellite weapon and took out a satellite in orbit without warning or confirming it was actually them that did it for a few weeks. That experiment placed thousands little pieces of debris into multiple orbit levels, causing problems for future satellite and shuttle missions, since it takes just a piece no bigger than a screw to puncture a hole into the space station or damage the wing of a space shuttle, leading to loss of life. So it was a bit surprising to see China come out today, not only condemning the missile strike, claiming it would threaten security in space, but also that they want access to all the data leading up to, during, and after the strike. It makes you wonder what China is up to.

In any case, today is the U.S. Navy’s day. We honor you!

For some additional information, check out these sites:
New York Times - “Pentagon Is Confident Missile Hit Satellite Tank”
Yahoo! News - “Satellite Hit Boosts Missile Defense”
New York Times - “For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk”

For some additional reading across the web, check out these blogs:
Engadget - “Video proof of the renegade satellite’s destruction”
Hotair - “Video: Navy gives rouge satellite the full Death Star treatment”
Peace and Freedom II - “Gates says U.S. will share satellite destruction data with China”
VirtualReview - “China cries foul as US shoots down satellite”
The Atlantic - “Behind McCain’s Counterattack”