Sunday, February 17, 2008

The US busting of satellite is ok, but not the Chinese


By China Watcher

Last week, the US informed the media that it would use a missile to destroy a defunct satellite to stop it from crashing to earth, the actual location has yet to be known or to be ably predicted. The Pentagon justified its action by saying that the satellite contained hazardous fuel which is a threat to humans. The US claimed that the blowing of the satellite up would disperse the hydrazine in space, leaving only small-scale satellite debris to fall harmlessly to Earth. The US Navy will use a ground based ballistic missile launched from its ship in the Pacific.

In early 2007, the Chinese used a ballistic missile to destroy an old and obsolete satellite in space, prompting a loud outcry from the US and its allies over the scattered debris in space which may pose a danger to space vehicles and other peripherals. It also raised the speculative concern of an arms space race.

Yesterday, Russia accused the US of using this act as a “cover” to test its anti-satellite weapons on a broken spy satellite after the reasons given was sketchy and insufficient. Such testing essentially means a re-start of the testing in space age weapons. The US is the only nation in the US who objected vehemently to the suggestions on the limitation of space age weapons and this raises a lot of questions of its intentions.

The Russia Defense Ministry said that past spacecrafts and space vehicles with more dangerous chemicals and gases did not merit adopting such “extraordinary” reactions and hence, this act is viewed very suspiciously as a “test”.

When the US shoots down anything in space it is alright and international criticisms is almost non existent but if China takes any similar action, you can bet it will draw lot of condemnations especially from the US government and the Western media. It is obvious that there are double standards practiced here – US actions are ok but not others.

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