Ann's Blog on Chinese missiles

Anns LAST BLOG for 1st semester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

"U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite" (cnn.com, Thursday January 18, 2007)

There could be oncommin issues in the relationship between The US and China. Last week (actually January 11), China launched a missile that destroyed an orbiting satellite. The US now sees China as a threat to the satellites used by the US military. The missile that they sent out was aimed at a Chinese weather satellite that was in orbit about 357 miles from earth. Apparently, this was the first sucess in three trials. There are space tracking sensors that indicate that the satellite was destroyed in addition to hundreds of pieces of debris. The US along with Australia and Canada have issued protests. US officials are worried now because if there were to become issues between the US and China then the first thing that they would do (and be capible of doing) would be to destroy all of the US satellites that orbit lower. This would take away all of our spy equiptment and thus put us a step behind. This is mainly a threat to the US.

I am always in awe of all the the military capabilities that the would is always gaining. The whole atomic bomb still amazes me. I am also in fear of whether other countries know where to draw the line between moral and immoral. At the same time, it is really impressive how accurate stuff like this can be. I can't even begin to fathom how they would even start to be able to launch a missile that could be so precise that it could collide with a satellite. I am also very suprised to learn that we have many satellites in orbit that have spy technology. I had a friend who visited Washington DC and while they were there they visited a place that had technology that connected with satellites that allowed them to see their house in Alexandria. THATS CREEPY!! And at the same time really cool...It is just like google (earth) which allows anybody to use the technology to zoom into places around the world. I can see how that could be helpful to use as a spy device in feuds between countries. I hope that we don't get involved in conflict with any other countries any time soon. I think that we are having enough trouble dealing with Iraq. Its weird to think about the world getting sucked into a WW3. That would be so scarry; I can't even imagine. I would like a peaceful world very much, I hope that that is a high priority to our world leaders.

Article From:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/18/china.missile/index.html
Picture from:
http://www.nd.edu/~techrev/mag-images/Spring2002/rouss3.jpg