How come we never hear about this stuff?

[Ed]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3167556

China shot down one of their own satellites with a missile, back in January, and they're saying their reasons for doing so are scientific, rather than military. Makes me wonder whether there's more going on there than we know about. I suppose it's vaguely possible they're trying to target things in space as a warm up for hitting incoming meteors, in which case it could be a good thing.

[Robert M. Blevins]

It's unlikely they are practicing for meteors. A missile with a nuclear warhead would NOT stop an incoming asteroid or meteor. It's like shooting a bb gun at a moving freight train.

Some more likely scenarios as to why they would shoot it down:

It was a spy satellite and the Chinese discovered the transmissions to Earth had been decoded and compromised.

It was nuclear-powered and the orbit was decaying, meaning if it comes down, it could scatter radioactive material over a wide area.

It was not really a satellite, but a target vehicle from the start, and the Chinese were practicing shooting down satellites.

In any event, none of those things are GOOD things. 

[Ed]

 

It was a spy satellite and the Chinese discovered the transmissions to Earth had been decoded and compromised.

That would tie in nicely with the Chinese capturing that American spy plane a year or two ago - maybe the information they got from the plane (the guys onboard didn't manage to destroy the hard drives before they were captured) and now the Chinese know how to spot/decode/whatever all the things the USA has watching them?

[Walker]

My initial feeling was that China was trying to show the world that lower level satalites are fair game with their new missile technology, perhaps even sending a message that while the Bush admin is determined to put nuclear weapons in space (I imagine they're already there), the chinese know how to knock them down from earth. Weaponization of space may be the most drastic mistake mankind has ever made and could ultimately prove to be our downfall.