Flashback Update! Satellite 'the size of a bus' could crash to Earth

Tom Chivers
The Telegraph
Sun, 27 Jan 2008 06:34 UTC

A large spy satellite is out of control and could crash to Earth in the next few weeks, a US government official has said.

The unnamed official warned that the satellite could land anywhere on the planet and may contain hazardous materials.

Speaking to Associated Press, the source said that US lawmakers and other nations were being kept abreast of the situation.

In response to the reports Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation.

©Unknown

The satellite is the size of a small bus

"Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause."

He refused to discuss specifics, such as whether the satellite might be destroyed with a missile. However, the director of the defense research group GlobalSecurity.org, John Pike, told AP that this was unlikely as such a move would create a rain of debris which could cause more widespread damage.

While the US government is yet to release any information about the spacecraft, Mr Pike said that it is most likely a photo-reconnaissance satellite, weighing as much as 20,000lb (9,000kg) and the size of a bus. It is believed to contain hydrazine, a common rocket fuel, which is hazardous to humans.

This is not the first time a large man-made satellite has de-powered and crashed uncontrollably in to the atmosphere. The largest was in 1979, when Skylab, a 78-ton abandoned space station, lost control and fell from orbit.

It fell apart on re-entry, with the debris crashing harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across an uninhabited part of Western Australia.

Comment: What a Brave New World we live in, where US government is raining toxicity down upon our heads.

Also, considering the recent information that such events may be used to conceal possible meteorite collision, it wouldn't be far-fetched to speculate that this indeed may be the fact.

From "The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets":

Cynics (or modern sophists), in other words, would say that we do not need the celestial threat to disguise Cold War intentions; rather we need the Cold War to disguise celestial intentions! (emphasis in the original)

From "Wars, Pestilence and Witches":

Clube writes elsewhere:

...[W]ithin these last few years, it has been found that there is a great swarm of cosmic debris circulating in a potentially dangerous orbit, exactly intersecting the Earth's orbit in June (and November) every few thousand years. More surprisingly, perhaps, it has been found that the evidence for these facts was in the past deliberately concealed. When the orbits exactly intersect however, there is a greatly increased chance of penetrating the core of the swarm, a correspondingly enhanced flow of fireballs reaching the Earth, and a greatly raised perception that the end of the world is nigh.

We wonder how many more "out of control satellites" are going to fall on our heads before US government will run out of excuses.