North Korea launches a satellite into orbit

[philip964]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012 ... s-say?lite" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This article, plus the headline on Drudge tends to downplay a tremendous accomplishment by the North Koreans. They have placed a satellite in orbit, this is something the US was not able to do until 1958. China in 1970.

They were attempting for a polar orbit which is also much harder than a regular orbit since you do not have the additional velocity of the already spinning earth. Being high above the equator also gives them less help. (There is a reason Cape Canaveral is where it is)

I did not see the weight of the payload they have placed in orbit. That would give us an idea of how small a nuke they have to make.

To me they now have the power to probably hit the United States all the way to the East coast, but they probably cannot direct it to a particular spot, like New York or Washington. These articles seem to always point to "might be able to reach Los Angeles" but if you can put something in a polar orbit you can reach anywhere in the US. Reaching Los Angeles has always appealed to me since, much of the stolen guidance technology probably came from near there.

They would also have a missile with the power to go from Iran and reach the US.

Underestimating this accomplishment does no one any good. Focusing on the satellite being out of control, rather than the success of the placing a satellite in orbit, may give us a warm and fuzzy feeling that hides a terrible risk we now face.

Thank Ronald Regan for starting "Starwars" when he did. In two years it may be the only thing that could save LA.

[Thomas]

Don't worry, this thing will probably intercept anything they can throw up in space and disable it if it posses a real threat:
http://www.foxnews.com/science/slidesho ... e/#slide=3

[chasfm11]

I'm not sure the problem is the satellite staying in orbit.

Since there are issues about control, the United States is not certain the satellite is in a fully stable orbit.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/1 ... ?hpt=hp_t2

[WildBill]

I did not see the weight of the payload they have placed in orbit. That would give us an idea of how small a nuke they have to make.

Since you seem to know a bit about U.S. space flight, you probably remember that it took the U.S. less than 10 years to go from lobbing a monkey into space to flying three people to the moon and back.

The thrust of the Apollo Launch Escape Module had twice the thrust of the entire Mercury-Redstone booster that launched the first US astronaut into space.

[philip964]

Save L. A. ?

Yeah, I know its not really possible. But we can hope.