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Toledo Talk   (musing about Lake Erie West and beyond)
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USS Lake Erie tasked with shooting down rogue satellite
Lake Erie was built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. Her keel was laid on 6 March 1990 and she was launched on 13 July 1991. Upon completion of her sea-trials after construction, Lake Erie transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was commissioned on 24 July 1993 as the twenty-fourth Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser in her homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Feb 20, 2008 CNN story

The cruiser USS Lake Erie will get one 10-second window each of the next nine or 10 days to fire an interceptor missile that will destroy the faltering spy satellite before it can tumble to Earth and -- possibly -- release a cloud of toxic gas.

Feb 20, 2008 ABC News story titled Weather Thwarts High-Tech Satellite Shoot Down :

The Navy is confident that its high-tech missile can not only intercept a rogue satellite hurtling at a startling 22,000 mph, but that it can strike the bus-sized satellite right in its gas tank. That is, if the weather clears up. Initially, officials said that stormy Pacific seas could cause a delay in shooting down a crippled spy satellite. But a defense official told ABC News Wednesday that, because of "improving" weather, "things are looking better."

The Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie is already in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles west of the Hawaiian Islands. As the primary ship in the mission, it is carrying two SM3 missiles with specially modified tracking systems to hit the satellite 120 miles above Earth.

The satellite is considered a cold target, and technicians will have to rely on the sun's energy to heat the satellite just enough to produce a heat signature that the missile's infrared heat sensors can easily target. The tip of the interceptor nose cone also carries optical equipment that helps it lock onto the target.

Feb 20, 2008 New York Times blog posting

Experts continue to debate the threat posed by a device containing 1,000 pounds of hydrazine that could crash almost anywhere in the world, and China and other nations remain unpersuaded that shooting it down is wise, with Russia saying there’s not “enough arguments” in favor.

From Wikipedia :

On 25 January 2002 the Missile Defense Agency and the Navy conducted a successful flight test in the continuing development of a Sea-Based Midcourse (SMD) Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Flight Mission-2 (FM-2) involved the launch of a developmental Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) and kinetic warhead (KW) interceptor from Lake Erie and an Aries target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The target was launched at 18:00 (EST) 26 January.

About eight minutes later, Lake Erie, equipped with Aegis Lightweight Exo-tmospheric Projectile (LEAP) computer programs and equipment, and having tracked the target with the Aegis SPY-1 radar and developed a fire-control solution, launched the newly-developed SM-3. The SM-3 acquired, tracked and diverted toward the target, demonstrating SM-3 fourth-stage Kinetic Warhead (KW) guidance, navigation and control. Although not a primary objective, during this early developmental test, the KW was aimed at the target, resulting in a hit-to-kill intercept at approximately 18:18 (EST).

The primary objective of this test was to evaluate SM-3 fourth-stage Kinetic Warhead guidance, navigation and control, with extensive engineering evaluation data collected for analyses in preparation for future flight tests. It was the fourth in a planned series of nine developmental test flights for the SMD program. The mission also included the first fully operational SM-3 with a live Solid Divert and Attitude Control System to steer the KW into the target.

Feb 17, 2008 Fox News video

created by jr on Feb 20, 2008 at 04:49:40 pm
updated by jr on Feb 20, 2008 at 05:06:04 pm     Comments: 5

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Comments ... #

I really have to wonder if the real reason they blast these things isn't to protect them from spreading their actual radioactive fuel all over some populated and expensive real estate,,, and also to prevent them from falling into the hands of our friends the Chinese, Pakistanis, Russians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Iranians, Syrians, Cubans, etc, etc, etc, etc,,, and of course the much villified evil French people. LOL,

posted by prime3end on Feb 20, 2008 at 06:29:52 pm     #



What's the vegas line on a hit?

I hope the missile gets good gas mileage.

posted by charlatan on Feb 20, 2008 at 07:56:01 pm     #



Good question. You can find action on this at Intrade Prediction Markets.

Select : Current Events >> L-21 Satellite (the satellite is called USA 193, also known as NROL-21)

SHOOTDOWN.SAT.MAR31 - L-21
Satellite to be Shot-down before or on the 31st March 2008
Bid : 87.0
Ask : 89.9
Last : 89.0
Vol : 87
Chge : +4.0

Not much volume on the L-21 prediction. Compare to the Democrat presidential election :

Obama : Last Price 82.0 +3.0 vol=363616
Clinton: Last Price 18.9 +0.3 vol=484775

posted by jr on Feb 20, 2008 at 08:55:40 pm     #



Official: Missile hits dying spy satellite

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a Navy missile hit the spy satellite it was targeting over the Pacific Ocean and says it should know Thursday whether the spacecraft's fuel tank was destroyed as planned. The missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said. Full details were not immediately available. It happened just after 10:30 p.m. ET.

The goal in this first-of-its-kind mission for the Navy was not just to hit the satellite but to obliterate a tank aboard the spacecraft carrying 1,000 pounds of a toxic fuel called hydrazine.

U.S. officials have said the fuel would pose a potential health hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area. Although the odds of that were small even if the Pentagon had chosen not to try to shoot down the satellite, it was determined that it was worth trying to eliminate even that small chance.

Officials said it might take a day or longer to know for sure if the toxic fuel was blown up

posted by KraZyKat on Feb 20, 2008 at 11:22:35 pm     #



they just really wanted to test it and needed an excuse. Whatever, glad it hit the target.

posted by Linecrosser on Feb 20, 2008 at 11:40:57 pm     #