NoKo's rocket tumbling around in orbit

[FBD]

did they even think about what this thing was going to do once up there, or were they that pessimistic that they just said "let's see if it gets up there" and left it at that?

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...cials-say?lite

The object that North Korea sent into space on Wednesday appears to be “tumbling out of control” as it orbits the earth, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The officials said that it is indeed some kind of space vehicle, but they still haven’t been able to determine exactly what the satellite is supposed to do.

In a statement, the White House said the rocket launch was a highly provocative act that threatens regional security and violates U.N. resolutions.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday condemned the launch, calling it a "clear violation" of U.N. resolutions. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he "deplores" the launch.
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North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear tests, under the terms of U.N. sanctions imposed after a series of nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009.

Missile warning systems detected the launch at 7:49 p.m. ET Tuesday. North American Aerospace Defense Command officials said in a statement that the initial indications were that the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea and the second stage fell into the Philippine Sea.

North Korea said the launch was an attempt to place a satellite into a pole-to-pole orbit. Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency said that the rocket was fired from the Sohae Satellite Launch Center on the secretive country's west coast, and that the Kwangmyongsong weather satellite went into orbit as planned.

KCNA via Reuters

North Korean scientists work as a screen shows the Unha-3 (Milky Way 3) rocket being launched at the satellite control center in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province.

But U.S. officials say the launch was a thinly veiled attempt to test a three-stage ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as the U.S. West Coast.

[redred]

we could start a bet on how long it stays up there

[FBD]

few years at the least, its going to take a while before it loses orbital velocity without some sort of decelerating burn...and I'd bet there aint a drop of fuel left on the thing, so...its gonna be floating around there a while.

[redred]

i can't see your government wanting it up there that long

[FBD]

there's so much shit up there right now its unbelievable. So long as its not in the orbital path of something important, it just sits there.

[DemonGeminiX]

*Whispers*

Tarrrr-geeeeet praaaac-tiiiiice!!!

[FBD]

while it'd be fun, you know as well as I do that would simply create a shitasston of space junk that would not come down

[Teh One Who Knocks]

there's so much shit up there right now its unbelievable. So long as its not in the orbital path of something important, it just sits there.

[Griffin]

They need to build a refinery on the space station to reuse that junk and expand the station.

[FBD]

then there's the collection problem of the sometimes thousands of miles an hour difference in orbital trajectories

[Griffin]

[FBD]

nice

[Muddy]

That piece of shit better not knock out my TV signal...