Satellite Shoot-Down: TOTAL SUCCESS

How awesome is this? I waited a little bit, but was amazed from the time that it occured, a ten second window of opportunity to knock down an orbiting satellite from a mobile Navy vessel? Wow, somewhere Ronald Regan is smiling ear to ear. The fuel tank? Yea, check this out:

The Pentagon said Monday it has a "high
degree of confidence" that the missile fired at a dead U.S. spy
satellite in space destroyed the satellite's fuel tank as planned.

In its most definitive statement yet on the outcome of last Wednesday's
shootdown over the Pacific, the Pentagon said that based on debris
analysis it is clear that the Navy missile destroyed the fuel tank,
"reducing, if not eliminating, the risk to people on Earth from the
hazardous chemical."

The Chinese have asked for the locations of where the possibly sensitive material gathered from the spy satellite will fall...sure, we'll get right on that China. In terms of missile defense, this is the best news possible. Mobile missile defense at that. Of course the best short-term news is that a large satellite will not be falling to the Earth causing a great deal of harm both from impact as well as the hazardous materials contained within the fuel tank. In terms of long term future, it raises great confidence in developing an international system to help protect the Earth from the impacts of celestial objects, something where the international community could actually rally around. Though I run the risk of sounding like some sort of sci-fi geek with that last sentiment, it's something that is at least rationally feasible in the long term future. Short-term, however, missile defense needs to be pushed forward for the security of the American people. We have just protected ourselves from an impact object that was projected to impact North America with an amazing display of American ingenuity and technological advancement. Though I reject Russia and China's condemnation of our missile defense program as well as the satellite shoot down, I will concede that the satellite shoot down probably did speed up the Czech Republic (one of our greatest current allies) into signing on to our missile defense program being developed in Eastern Europe. I'll leave you with the video:

-Caomhin