Posted 12.17.2012 at 3:47 pm
6 Comments
North Korea: Rocket Is Good, Satellite Not So Much
More bad news for North Korea on the first anniversary of dearly departed leader Kim Jong-il’s death: the satellite it launched into orbit last week is not only tumbling out of control, but is also likely completely dead, astronomers say. “It’s tumbling and we haven’t picked up any transmissions,” Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks space activity, told the New York Times. “Those two things are most consistent with the satellite being entirely inactive at this point.” Meaning that while North Korea did manage to put its satellite in the right orbit--a technological feat in itself--the Democratic People’s Republic is still far from being a space power. Or even a space lightweight.
[NYT]
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Eeek!!!!
Imagine one day in the future a wobbling lost in space nuke?!?!
Well, it could easily be running silent until getting a signal from 'home'. I wonder why we don't have any pictures yet (where's that secret spy shuttle when you need it?).
The linked article seems to suggest it is in the right orbit. I assume that means it will stay up there and possibly the North Koreans are simply waiting to stabilize the roll and start transmitting. Maybe that's a long shot but it wouldn't surprise me.
Ha Ha, the one piece of space junk, no one wants to salvage, lol.... snort...
In my opinion its most probable that the satellite was a replica of the one that they showed off last year, containing no actual technology at all, just an empty shell with the purpose of giving the illusion that this entire launch was for peaceful purposes. I would even go as far as to say that the tumbling "out of control" was entirely intentional. We'll know soon, if they try to launch a new one up in the next year or so.
I'm sure it's silent as it was designed that way--it's simply a space nuke designed to absorb signals from NK's leaders when they finally decide to drop it on our heads at the right time. USA should blast it out of space.
If it is tumbling at high speed it is likely any servos/engines to deploy any type of power generating/transmitting apparatti would have been destroyed. as a result, any communication/adjustment to correct this will likely be impossible.
So unless it was North Korea's intention to send up a bowling ball (which is possible, it does stand a good chance of tumbling into other satellites), I would say it was a monumental failure representative of Kim Jong-il. It is a fitting tribute.