I accidentally got a copy of the Orange County Register today instead of my usual LA Times, and on page A10 there's a short AP dispatch headlined "Russia gets blamed for threatening space junk." This was due to a Russian missile destroying an old satellite and creating a huge cloud of debris that posed a danger to the International Space Station.
What a disappointment. That headline is so bland. So weak. So appease-y. Back in the day, it would have been the front page lead story and it would have been headlined, "REDS THREATEN US ASTRONAUTS."
Only oldsters will get this joke, but that's OK. We oldsters have a thousand more like this, which I suppose is why we take Fox News so seriously but remain a little less troubled by social media.
POSTSCRIPT: Joking aside, wtf Russia? What's the deal behind pulling an insane stunt like this?
> wtf Russia?
Given the mass of troops building up near Ukraine and the human wave attacks against Poland from Belarus, this seems like Putin signaling that Russia's famous willingness to go scorched-earth is still there.
My question is if this signal is meant only other governments, or includes industry. Is this blackmail against the US monocle and top hat set? Note that financial coercion against Russian oligarchs pisses Putin off as much as interfering with his Ukraine plans.
And remember that OC Republicans have flip flopped and Russia is now the society they admire and wish to emulate. Harsh headlines will generate subscription cancellations.
Russia's drinking problem, combined with covid. Guy sneezes, passes out, head hits a button, missile goes off. Sheer luck it hits something.
What is odd is that Russia seems to have a lot invested in keeping the ISS afloat, having contributed money, parts, and personnel including astronauts, so why detonate a satellite that could potentially threaten something they have heavily invested in.
If this was a sneak attack against a satellite that knocked out GPS to the US and other nations, I could understand that action, it might get us closer to WW III, but I really could understand that action, but destroying something that puts your own team at risk, so to speak, that is a head scratcher.
Putin is a nostalgist, & he misses Mir.
The International Space Station is a slap across Russia's face that she is not mighty enough to go it alone/lead on interstellar residence.
Bureaucracies.
The people responsible for the ISS mission will be civilians.
The satellite killer test will be military people. Approval straight from Putin and if no one thought to tell him that it could endanger the ISS crew, then the decision would be taken in the affirmative.
OR
Putin really doesn't care about ISS and wanted to "send a message" to US.
It's quite possible orbital mechanics are not in Putin's grasp, and there's no senior scientist he really trusts. After all, imagine what Trump would have done in the same situation? Ordered a knee jerk reaction, regardless of potential consequences.
Putin has that kind of absolute authority over his underlings, and operates in an environment where he is only told what they think he wants to hear. That's common to virtually all autocrats. He's not intellectually stupid in the way Trump is, but it's just possible no one told him.
The US military Operation Burnt Frost created threatening space junk in 2008. Fascists stunts inspire mimicry.
Isn't this the opening of Gravity?
That is the opening of Gravity, and it killed everybody!
It was a Russian Military operation, which probably explains why the concerns of the Russian scientists weren't taken seriously. On top of that, they needed something to shoot, and it was a choice between shooting a decommissioned satellite or spending a bunch of money to put something up there just to shoot it back down.
This I think is the key to it.
You have competing bureaucracies, and Russian foreign policy is all about signals of assertion.
Same reason they keep firing their thrusters on the ISS and making the station do loop de loops. Because they're f'ing jerks.
Weren't there Cosmonauts on the ISS too???
details, details...
😉
I wonder if this did or will affect the Chinese space station?
The Russians helped build the ISS. They have had several crews there.
They simply wanted to publicly test a "shoot down" to show the world their technological prowess
It was Sputnik in reverse
"Joking aside, wtf Russia? What's the deal behind pulling an insane stunt like this?"
China did it.
Why? Because Putin is a thug. It's in his nature. Also, the leader of a failed nation desperately trying to get the attention of the big guys.
This is actually viral marketing for NETFLIX Red Notice.
Well, better than describing July 20, 1969 as
"Cis Het White Men Invade, Colonize Moon"
which is the alternative on the other side of the media.
I don't think the shooting itself was the point. The spallation afterword was. Can you say, Kessler Syndrome? There was a (quite good, IMHO) anime, Planetes based on the premise of dedicated personnel clearing orbits of space debris. Think of the possibilities for stochastic economic terrorism WRT communication satellites ...