Hans.Moravec%CMU-RI-ROVER@sri-unix.UUCP (01/22/84)
n066 1524 21 Jan 84
AM-WEAPONS
Air Force Flight Tests ASAT Missile
By JEFF GERTH
c.1984 N.Y. Times News Service
WASHINGTON - The Air Force announced on Saturday that it had
conducted the first test in flight of an advanced missile designed to
destroy satellites.
The missile was fired from an F-15 fighter plane at Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California. The test involved only the booster and
booster guidance system and did not involve any target, the Air Force
said.
Cmdr. Jeffrey S. Rink, a Pentagon spokesman, said details of the
test and test results were classified and would not be disclosed.
The anti-satellite missile was launched from an F-15 flying out of
Edwards Air Force Base in California, the Air Force said. The test
took place over the western test range of the Air Force's Western
Space and Missile Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
While the Air Force has conducted what it calls ''captive-carry''
tests over the past year, that is, taking the missile aloft attached
to the F-15, the test on Saturday involved the first actual firing of
the missile.
The test of the missile, the U.S. Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle
Anti-Satellite (ASAT), seems likely to increase the debate over
weapons in space.
In the past, such advocates as Dr. Herman Kahn, who headed the
Hudson Institute before his death last year, argued that ''clean
wars'' could be fought in space. Supporters have also said the Soviet
Union has been testing an anti-satellite technology for some time.
Almost immediately after the test a group of scientists denounced it
as a dangerous escalation of the arms race.
The scientists issuing the statement, who have been critical of the
technology in the past, included Henry W. Kendall, chairman of the
Union of Concerned Scientists; Jerome H. Bethe, a Nobel laureate in
physics; and Dr. Richard Garwin, a physicist at the International
Business Machines Corp.
nyt-01-21-84 1815est
***************arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL) (09/25/85)
In article <1764@hao.UUCP> pete@hao.UUCP (Pete Reppert) writes: >*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** >Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down >by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific >satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least >that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. >-- > Pete Reppert No rumor. Fact, actually. From the Washington Post, as published in the (well, it's what I've got) San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, 20 Sept., 1985, p. 7.: The Solwind satellite destroyed last Friday in the first test of a U.S. anti-satellite weapon was providing "very userful data" on solar activity until the moment it was hit, according to astrophysicists who were surprised and upset and seeing a fruitful experiment being used as a military target. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as recently as yesterday [19 Sept] referred to the target as a "burned-out satellite". Physicist Robert M. MacQueen, director of the high-altitude observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, said yesterday that it was "deplorable" that the Pentagon "had taken a scientifically useful thing and sacrificed it in this way". The satellite carried seven experiments into space six years ago for the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and other goverment agencies. One NRL experiment used a coronagraph that sent images to Earth of activity on the surface of the sun during each of the satellite's orbits, or roughly 15 times a day, several astrophysicists said. Several months ago, NRL scientists were asked to draft what one source said "they thought was a routine paper to justify continued operation of their coronagraph". The scientists acknowledged problems with the spacecraft system, the source said, but wrote that it should continue. In July, however, the NRL scientists were told "the satellite would be turned off sometime after August 1, but they weren't told how," the source said. Yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said the Pentagon was not ready to provide complete answeres to queries about Solwind's functions and choice as a target. He said the satellite was originally intended to operate for three years at most after launching in 1979. MacQueen, whose organization designed Solar Max and runs it for the Air Force, said the "continuous observations" of the Solwind satellite, stretching from a period of maximum solar activity in 1980 through minial activity recently, were "very valuable". The fun thing to note is that someone made a specific, *concious* decision to shoot down a functioning satellite (note the quote about the scientists being informed that the system would be "turned off"). I, for one, figure the military owes these guys another satellite. Ken Arnold "... Of course, all this happened during baseball season, so the Chronicle may not have covered it..." -- Tom Leher
karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) (09/25/85)
> >Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down > >by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific > >satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least > >that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. I'd like to suggest to the Pentagon that for their next ASAT test (I'm sure that they won't consider just one test to be sufficient) they use Ronald Reagan as their target. Clearly, HE has outlived HIS usefulness, and HE will likely "die of old age" pretty soon anyway. Further, his brain is already somewhere in outer space, so they'll save the launching costs (but they may have some trouble finding something that small and far away on radar). He's also so good at evading questions at press conferences that it should be an excellent test of the ASAT weapon's maneuvering capabilities. Phil
gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (09/27/85)
> I, for one, figure the military owes these guys another satellite.
I agree.crs@lanl.ARPA (09/27/85)
> In article <1764@hao.UUCP> pete@hao.UUCP (Pete Reppert) writes: > >Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down > >by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific > >satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least > >that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. > >-- > > Pete Reppert > > No rumor. Fact, actually. From the Washington Post, as published in > the (well, it's what I've got) San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, 20 Sept., > . > . > . > Yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said the Pentagon was not > ready to provide complete answeres to queries about Solwind's > functions and choice as a target. He said the satellite was > originally intended to operate for three years at most after ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ #### > launching in 1979. Seems that this is carrying *planned* obsolescence to the extreme! -- All opinions are mine alone... Charlie Sorsby ...!{cmcl2,ihnp4,...}!lanl!crs crs@lanl.arpa
sean@ukma.UUCP (Sean Casey) (09/29/85)
In article <595@petrus.UUCP> karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) writes: >I'd like to suggest to the Pentagon that for their next ASAT test (I'm sure >that they won't consider just one test to be sufficient) they use Ronald >Reagan as their target. Clearly, HE has outlived HIS usefulness, and HE >will likely "die of old age" pretty soon anyway. Further, his brain is >already somewhere in outer space, so they'll save the launching costs >(but they may have some trouble finding something that small and far away >on radar). > >He's also so good at evading questions at press conferences that it should >be an excellent test of the ASAT weapon's maneuvering capabilities. Thank you for that intelligent discussion of Reagan's attributes. Why don't you send the Pentagon a letter discussing your plan that will no doubt be of tremendous value to our strategic initiative. It's good to see people on the net present discussions based on careful thought and scientific method. Keep up the good work. -- - Sean Casey UUCP: sean@ukma.UUCP or - Department of Mathematics {cbosgd,anlams,hasmed}!ukma!sean - University of Kentucky ARPA: ukma!sean@ANL-MCS.ARPA
hull@hao.UUCP (Howard Hull) (09/29/85)
> > In article <1764@hao.UUCP> pete@hao.UUCP (Pete Reppert) writes: > > >Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down > > >by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific > > >satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least > > >that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. > > >-- > > > Pete Reppert > > > > No rumor. Fact, actually. From the Washington Post, as published in > > the (well, it's what I've got) San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, 20 Sept., > > . > > . > > . > > Yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said the Pentagon was not > > ready to provide complete answeres to queries about Solwind's > > functions and choice as a target. He said the satellite was > > originally intended to operate for three years at most after > ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ #### > > launching in 1979. > > Seems that this is carrying *planned* obsolescence to the extreme! > -- > Charlie Sorsby No no no! Youse guys don' git it. Youse wan' da Congres' t' be responsible, don' ya? Well, dey is. Dey alocates a certin amoun' a money fer da program, an' dat translates inta a certin 'mount of time ta git an' figger oud da data. Aftr dat, youse guys eidher gotten yer money's wurth or ya didn'. Dey don' wan' spend no mo, so dey go boom boom! Kill two birds 'w one smart rock, eh? Gras Bartholomew. Aaactuallly, there were numerous gross errors in the Wash Post article. Whereas it is likely that our director here, Dr. R.M. Macqueen, did speak many or all of the *words* retained in quotes in the article, the sentences bear no resemblance to anything he said. All ye be forewarned; telephone interviews with the rapacious press are extremely hazardous. You can ask that they send you copy for review before they publish, but be assured, they will not comply. A few for instances: "MacQueen, whose organization designed Solar Max ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ HAO did not design Solar Max. HAO designed the solar coronagraph instrument that is one of (I think, seven) the instruments on board the spacecraft. HAO did not build *any* part of the spacecraft. The coronagraph was built by the Ball Aero-Space Division (here in Boulder). The SMM core was designed by NASA and is maintained, operationally speaking, by the Modular Mission Spacecraft group at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Beltsville, MD. And when I say maintained, I mean MAINTAINED! (The craft was repaired by the Space Shuttle crew (STS 41C) over a year ago in April). and runs it for the Air Force, Wrong again. The SOLWIND satellite was Air Force Property, as are the many many teeny weeny little pieces of it now running around in LEO along with whatever junk the Ruskies made testing *their* ASAT system (anyone want to speculate on how big the biggest remaining chunks might be, and how long it will take for it all to come down?). The NRL experiment was a "piggyback" instrument on board the satellite. Under the circumstances, the NRL folks can be assumed to be "muzzled" for reasons relating to the National Defense. said the "continuous observations" of the Solwind satellite, stretching from a period of maximum solar activity in 1980 through minial activity recently, were "very valuable". True. The observations can be considered to be part of a general data set which will allow cross calibration of other instruments. Data sets that span a long period of time while taken with a consistent data handling algorithm do not suffer badly from temporal aliasing. In spite of the indignation suffered, MacQueen's interview does accomplish one worthy purpose. Everyone in the world who ever doubted it now knows the USA can cream a satellite in orbit as opposed to a cooperative balloon [launched?] target system with problems in its telemetry packages. Now for a little humor. Since we here at NCAR are being eyed as a qualified candidate for budget hacks to do something about the National Deficit, we are told that we should be more innovative and try to align our activities with current National Priorities. It has been suggested by one our members that we change the design of some of our upcoming instruments for NASA platforms (i.e. Spartan 201) to have a dual function. They will, as usual, gather data concerning solar atmospheric physics; they will, in addition, have special systems added including decoy, evasive maneuvering, backscatter countermeasure, and solar wind focusing apparatus to "perturb" the test ASATs in an appropriate fashion. :-) Howard Hull [If yet unproven concepts are outlawed in the range of discussion... ...Then only the deranged will discuss yet unproven concepts] {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | harpo!seismo } !hao!hull