Shooting Down Satellites

Here's a post about Chinese doubts about the US shooting down one of its own satellites. Some quotes: "Some Chinese are not buying the U.S. explanation of why it shot down a crippled spy satellite." and "...events that U.S. readers might take at face value."

OMG, does anyone actually believe the bogus stories both governments composed? The Chinese shot theirs down as a matter of national security. It had to know if it could reduce US capabilities in the event of war. (The reality is it reduces only a little as most of the important satellites are in farther orbits, and the US has inertial systems too, not just GPS.) The US has wanted to do such a test for a long time, but faced a delicate detente with the Russians over space weaponization since 1985. The Chinese test forced their hand, or allowed a fortunate excuse, depending on your point of view. In any case it is quite impressive the US was able to prepare and execute a successful test in a matter of weeks.

What is more interesting is the after-the-fact responses. The US expressed sensible and measured alarm at the military implications, and the debris left in orbit. After the US test, the Chinese response was practically a mirror of the original US response. Unfortunately, the facts were different, and the Chinese response made little sense. For example, the US test was in low orbit and the debris would fall into the atmosphere in a matter of days and weeks, not years like the Chinese debris. Also, the US had a plausible justification, its wayward satellite would soon enter the atmosphere at an uncontrollable location, possibly threatening populated areas (ooo, I'm scared).

The actions were similar, but the handling of public relations was vastly different, showing the US advantage of many years of cold war experience.