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Blowing up a spy satellite

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Feb 20, 2008 9:51 AMNov 5, 2019 7:03 AM

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Update (Feb 20): The Navy has apparently successfully hit the satellite with a missile.

I have been hearing lots of rumors and getting asked a lot by friends about the spy satellite USA 193 that the United States intends to blow up, so I created this 9-minute video (also embedded below). I talk about what's going to happen, what we know, what we're guessing, why the satellite is falling back to Earth, why they might blow it up during the eclipse tonight, and why this is different than what the Chinese did in 2007. A lot of this is my opinion, like maybe that the real reason they're blowing it up is to keep any secret tech out of enemies' hands. But I am trying to base what I'm saying here on what is actually known. No (goofy) conspiracies needed.

You can get more info on the USA 193 Wikipedia page, and another great place to learn about what's going on over your head is Jonathan's Space Report.

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