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From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL)
Newsgroups: net.rumor,net.physics,net.space
Subject: Re: ASAT
Message-ID: <652@ucsfcgl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 03:02:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.652
Posted: Wed Sep 25 03:02:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Sep-85 08:27:58 EDT
References: <1764@hao.UUCP>
Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold)
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Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
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Xref: watmath net.rumor:1109 net.physics:3292 net.space:4565

In article <1764@hao.UUCP> pete@hao.UUCP (Pete Reppert) writes:
>*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
>Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down
>by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific
>satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least
>that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. 
>-- 
> Pete Reppert

No rumor.  Fact, actually.  From the Washington Post, as published in
the (well, it's what I've got) San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, 20 Sept.,
1985, p. 7.:

	The Solwind satellite destroyed last Friday in the first test
	of a U.S. anti-satellite weapon was providing "very userful
	data" on solar activity until the moment it was hit, according
	to astrophysicists who were surprised and upset and seeing a
	fruitful experiment being used as a military target.

	Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as recently as yesterday
	[19 Sept] referred to the target as a "burned-out satellite".

	Physicist Robert M. MacQueen, director of the high-altitude
	observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in
	Colorado, said yesterday that it was "deplorable" that the
	Pentagon "had taken a scientifically useful thing and
	sacrificed it in this way".

	The satellite carried seven experiments into space six years
	ago for the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and other goverment
	agencies.  One NRL experiment used a coronagraph that sent
	images to Earth of activity on the surface of the sun during
	each of the satellite's orbits, or roughly 15 times a day,
	several astrophysicists said.

	Several months ago, NRL scientists were asked to draft what one
	source said "they thought was a routine paper to justify
	continued operation of their coronagraph".  The scientists
	acknowledged problems with the spacecraft system, the source
	said, but wrote that it should continue.

	In July, however, the NRL scientists were told "the satellite
	would be turned off sometime after August 1, but they weren't
	told how," the source said.

	Yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said the Pentagon was not
	ready to provide complete answeres to queries about Solwind's
	functions and choice as a target.  He said the satellite was
	originally intended to operate for three years at most after
	launching in 1979.

	MacQueen, whose organization designed Solar Max and runs it for
	the Air Force, said the "continuous observations" of the
	Solwind satellite, stretching from a period of maximum solar
	activity in 1980 through minial activity recently, were "very
	valuable".

The fun thing to note is that someone made a specific, *concious*
decision to shoot down a functioning satellite (note the quote about
the scientists being informed that the system would be "turned off").
I, for one, figure the military owes these guys another satellite.

		Ken Arnold

		"... Of course, all this happened during baseball
		season, so the Chronicle may not have covered it..."
				-- Tom Leher


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