As everyone should already know, America launched a rocket to take out a satellite. Russia and CHina say it was only a test of the American rocketshield and said a new weapon race has begon. So, you think it is like that and effect will it have for the future?

Soon robots will do the fighting for us.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It was obviously done exactly for reasons stated. Is every move a powerful county makes supposed to be some symbolic display of muscle flexing?

That is stupid to believe so and shows almost no understanding of the situation.

I was mainly kidding my friend. It's a fact that I dislike the US goverment (just like any other goverment) but I do not believe in such conspiracy theories.

Please explain the situation, because I think like Mors here, but maybe I'm out of the tune here

The missile was an SM-3, an older anti-ballistic missile. Nothing new, and nothing worth showing off for any "arms race". Anyone claiming otherwise is a crackpot with no regards to facts.

If I'm not mistaken the novelty here is not the weapon but the target

We've shot missiles at a longer distance. This is nothing new.

If it was shot down using the latest in weaponised Laser technology, then it would be a bigger deal, I reckon.

Exactly, but it was shot down using an older anti-ballistic missile model, and at a distance that we have already surpassed. This isn't a display of power; it's exactly what it looks like.

what?

We shot down a malfunctioning satellite (over the ocean) that was going to plummet to earth. Eliminating any damage on a large scale that could have occured from the massive satellite falling on something. That's all it was.

Yup. China has already shot one down, so why is it a big deal for the U.S to do the same? Did people not think they were capable of this for some time already? Or is it the fact that any display of a use of missiles in space antagonises these people? If they resurrect the SDI (Star Wars) program entirely, then that would be a different matter, but this was simply an Earth based launch.

Ok, sounds logic. Please note that I was really curious and not trolling!!!

People are rather quick to jump to ridiculous assertions like these. I know the American government isn't perfect, but some people are very much set in the particular mindset that everything the US does is evil or has some alterior motive behind it.

Already started a year ago when the chinese did it aswell.

The US has certainly built up a reputation to warrant those mindsets.

Doubtful.

Hmmm, aren't the damaging parts of the satellite going to fall on Earth anyway?

I'm thinking the main reason they shot it down is because it probably contained sensitive data, not because they were worried about possibly killing a few people. It's a "spy satellite", afterall...

The debris (which is now all small particles and pieces) will disintegrate upon entry in the atmosphere.

Alrightie, thx for the info.

Its not killing a few people, if that thing crashed into the ocean, it has a potential of killing thousands of people + an environment disaster.

This article addresses everything quite clearly:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/sho ... =206801081

At first, military experts said the satellite posed little risk to people since about 75% of the Earth is covered by water and it was statistically unlikely to land in a populated area. They later said that 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel could endanger people and about half of the 5,000-pound satellite's weight could survive re-entry. It appeared that the satellite could land in North America or near Hawaii, so President George W. Bush empowered military leaders to issue shoot-down orders.

It is possible that the satellite carried technology that we don't want to share with the Chinese. I don't think there's any big scandal here.

If it were Russians, I would say no, but Chinese people are known for ripping of everything.

It's obvious they weren't "showing off" or testing a new weapon ... however I think it might be possible there was something on that sattelite that others couldn't see. I don't know if whatever it'd contain would be able to survive the fall on earth though.

Either way I don't think we should assume that the only reason they shot it down was to prevent killing people, though I woudn't be suprised if this was the case.

I don't think we will ever know.

i was sure from reading the headline that this thread was going to be about a race of people that loved weapons...

fail

g0sh Ur FUNNI!

Um, we already do know. No big mystery here, no conspiracy of any sort.

Thorgrim, are you the face of logic and reason around here these days?

There's no money in fighting robots.

Yeah when China shot down a satellite all the Western nations started whinging about it, so now that the US has done it it's only fair for the Chinese and Russians to whinge back

Hehe.
Speaking of the Russians, they always did have some nice missile tech (SS-N-22 Sunburn Anti-Ship), I wonder what they have up their sleeves right now?

Disagree. It's always possible that there's more to it than you think. I think conspiracy theories suck too, but that doesn't mean they are not possible. Unless you were there at that given moment you don't know for sure what the reason is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there's more to it ...

It's not really an arms race, it's an ability race.

My dad who used to work for the U.S. government in what would happen if there was a nuclear war told me that this shows we can shoot missiles out of the air. It even looks better if it's an older missile.

IMO China's and Russia's reaction was more or less anticipated whatever the reason for the launch, the race has begun since the re-enpowerment of Russia and China's attempt to influence foreign politics the last few years. With this in mind and since the 'official' explanation is laughable at best I do believe that some muscle show-off along with sensitive information risk is involved in this..