Satellite shot down

[Isak922]

China isn't the first to shoot down a satellite technically  ;D I'm not sure exactly when, but the F-15 Eagle is capable of carrying a weapon that can reach satellite's and proceed to shoot them down  :o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15#Satellite_killer

Satellite killer
From January 1984 to September 1986, an F-15A was used as a launch platform for five ASM-135 ASAT missiles. The F-15A went into a supersonic climb and released the ASAT missile at an altitude of 11.6 km (38,000 ft). The F-15A computer was updated to control the zoom-climb and missile release. The third test flight involved a retired communications satellite in a 555 km orbit, which was successfully destroyed by sheer kinetic energy. The pilot, USAF Major Wilbert D. "Doug" Pearson, became the first pilot ever to destroy an orbiting satellite.

The ASAT missile was designed to be a standoff anti-satellite weapon, with the F-15A acting as a first stage.

[Woodlouse2002]

[quote][quote]August 21, 1985, The White House announced today that, despite Soviet objections, the United States would proceed with the first American test of an anti-satellite weapon against an object in space.


In reaction to the 11th January 2007Chinese test of an anti satellite missile the United States logged a formal diplomatic protest.
"We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will "deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so."

In other words:
Do as we say, not as we do

[Boomtown Rat]

[quote][quote][quote]August 21, 1985, The White House announced today that, despite Soviet objections, the United States would proceed with the first American test of an anti-satellite weapon against an object in space.


In reaction to the 11th January 2007Chinese test of an anti satellite missile the United States logged a formal diplomatic protest.
"We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will "deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so."

In other words:
Do as we say, not as we do

[Woodlouse2002]

Well, considering just previously China said it would be using space strictly for peaceful purposes...  

Isn't that what everyone says though? As has been made very clear in this thread, they're not doing anything the Americans havn't done before.

[Stormtropper]

...seeing the international response to North Korea's bomb a few month back, is China trying to piss the world off?

[Boomtown Rat]

[quote][quote]
Well, considering just previously China said it would be using space strictly for peaceful purposes...

[Flt.Lt.Andrew]

...because he finds American Foreign Policy/ Defence Policy the most offensive?

In more humourous news, our Foreign Minister 'chucked a spaz', to use common parlance, at the Chinies Ambassador for this test.


A.

[Boomtown Rat]

...because he finds American Foreign Policy/ Defence Policy the most offensive?

In more humourous news, our Foreign Minister 'chucked a spaz', to use common parlance, at the Chinies Ambassador for this test.


A.

I find the Australian MPs the funniest, here's a few quotes (to go a bit off topic):

* "I was implying that the Honourable Member

[TacitBlue]

...because he finds American Foreign Policy/ Defence Policy the most offensive?

My observation over the last few years is that you find anything American to be offensive.

That said, I think that China has just as much right as we do to experiment with anti-satellite weapons. I don't see why my government would have such a problem with it. I guess it's that old "policeman of the world" type thinking cropping up yet again, and I feel that it is inappropriate.

Just my two cents as a an over-fed, uneducated yank.

[beefhole]

How much more do you have to get out of that? To me it's a simple case of what goes around comes around. Seems America doesn't like a level playing field.

Of course we don't want a level playing field woody.  When it comes to war, weapons, defense, etc., there isn't a nation on the planet that wants a level playing field.

[alrot]

I though China was now a friend of USA Even they have many Mc Donalds and many bands like american music,rock ,hip hop, I even get to see a copy of Back street boys in asian version singing like them and Hong Kong looks like any american city

[Stormtropper]

Personally, I don't see this as a whether or not China has the right to own anti satellite technology, but rather as a deliberate challenge to American authority that is spread across the globe. Before anyone out there give me crap about how this might be a good thing, just remember, although one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, as long as you live in a 1st world, developed "western" nation this is your terrorist. It doesn't matter what your beliefs are or where your loyalties lie, the only possible outcome is that one day these weapons will be used against you. So unless you live in a deserted village in the middle of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that the Chinese government doesn't even consider worth bombing, don't go blabbering on about how this could potentially benefit you.

Just like North Korea with the detonation of their nuclear bomb, China is trying to recreate another Cold War scenario.

This, of course, dosen't justify some of the questionable actions that America has taken over the past decade, but this DOES put China heavily at fault.

[DizZa]

Isn't America concerned with this as it is breaching the 'Space Preservation Act', of 2001? No such thing existed in 1985 when the USA was shooting down Satalites with a F-15.

[Flt.Lt.Andrew]

To Stormtropper : Where's the proof, man?

Seriously, unless this act of knocking out one of their own satellites with a missile, was accompanied by an express decreee of hostile intentions before or after, it doesnt make it an agressive act. It's just a test- besides, China gets on well with America at present, perhaps the test is really designed to rattle N. Korea?
BTW, what American authority?

A.

[Boomtown Rat]

To Fll. Lt. Andrew:

It's called being the world's most powerful nation, the one which started the UN and NATO, as well as signing the ANZUS pact with your nation and New Zealand.