:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 2.14.2008 ::
:: "Surveillance satellite might burn up on re-entry -- or not" ::
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
No need to worry about a U.S. spy satellite that's the size of a school bus and falling from outer space crashing down on your head.
"It's only about 7,000 pounds. It's more like a minivan," said Carnegie Mellon University professor Paul Fischbeck, who studies risk management.
NASA said the satellite it launched last year never functioned properly and will re-enter the atmosphere later this month or early next month.
Logic would hold that the satellite would burn up upon re-entry, but that's not necessarily the case.
On average, one nonfunctioning spacecraft or other piece of debris has fallen back to Earth every day for more than 40 years, according to NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office.
Because the latest object is a spy satellite, few details about it are known.
Read more here.
A L S O
US: Broken Satellite Will Be Shot Down
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, The Associated Press has learned.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a later Pentagon briefing.
posted by me
:: 12:26:00 PM [+] ::
...
