Falling Satellite Probably Not a Danger

The NROL-21 USA-193 spy satellite failed almost immediately after launching over a year ago—now it's on its way down

By Gregory Mone Posted 01.29.2008 at 12:46 pm 3 Comments

Delta Launch:

It started out as a 10-ton satellite packed with hazardous materials plummeting towards Earth. Then it dropped down to 4 tons, and the materials turned out not to be hazardous. Details are still sketchy, but it now seems clear that the NROL-21 USA-193 satellite that failed just hours after its December 2006 launch is now on its way back down to Earth. Should we be worried?

From the always informative John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org:

“Is there a public safety hazard? Probably not. Is there a risk of sensitive technology falling into hostile hands? Possibly. Is this yet another milestone of failure in a surprising troubled intelligence satellite program? Evidently.”

Pike suspects that the story will be back in the news again in a few weeks as the satellite approaches reentry, and its probable landing spot becomes clear.

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3 Comments

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featherfoot

from blossom, tx

01/31/08 at 1:13 pm

no matter how many advancements we make in space, we are still have jetisening spacecraft which means leaving things in space. we should have know that oneday this would be a threat. thank god for our ability to see things coming and react quickly.

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Czar

02/13/08 at 4:23 pm

sadly,we often prefer to just turn a blind eye towards certain things. If it appears that a country is developing space weapons, we may pretend that they are not or say that they are not a threat. Weaponization of space is imminent. despite the international pact made by several countries, including us, other countries who have not signed the pact will deploy weapons in space. If or when they attack us, we will, in retaliation, deploy weapons in space to combat them. we likely have a "nonexistent" branch of military that is developing weapons made for space just in case. China, us, and some other advanced countries already have the capability of shooting down satellites. the attack plan of another country could be well disguised. they could for example, send up satellites that may seem legitimate, maybe even work, but that are really loaded with perhaps explosives or are just very large. these could then attack our satellites, the space station, or act like ballistics from space. if they are used as ballistics, an operational error could be invented and it could appear as if the craft is plummeting out of control when it could be precisely controlled and targeted to crash into the white house, etc. plus, the country who planned that would be mostly safe because everyone would think it was an accident when it really wasn't. If that happened, then the people who develop that controversial ideas that it was planned would be right for once. Unfortunately, we will eventually become so advanced that we will be set back centuries if we fight a war because we will utterly annihilate each other. If I were an alien watching us, I would not return their signals due to our apparently violent nature.

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Sonya25

03/17/09 at 10:17 am

"Probably" not a danger? Oh dear God. Well, what do you expect since we didn't even get to the Moon?
The space race hasn't even begun yet, it is just a battle of politics... politics seem to be in everything.
http://www.satellitetv-center.com/