Military buffs....

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Found this article of an F15 that shot down a satellite in 1985. I wonder how that technology has evolved.

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/ASAT/F15ASAT.html

[USMARINE1108]

We're not the only ones.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/library/news/2007/space-070123-rferl01.htm

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Damn thats ironic, I had no clue they did that and I just stumbled on this article last week!

[MurphysLaw88GT]

Yep, the first time i heard of it I read it in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, then i did some diggin to see if it was for real, sure shit it was.

[Al]

Hasaegawa has a 1:32 scale kit of that plane for sale. I think Happy Hobby still has one.

Sometimes I think that it does not take too much technology to build such a missile. All you really need is a strong rocket engine, a PLC with the computing power of your average home PC, a bunch of sensors and servos, a few math-wizzes who know how to use a TI-92 to its fullest potential, and someone who can do programming in QNX.

Okay, mabey it is a bit more complex, but there is a guy in New Zealand who built a cruise missle, just for fun.

Also, there is a reason why the B2 can use the stars for navigation if GPS should fail.

[USMARINE1108]

The one that China shot down was orbiting around 500 miles, the same alt as the satellite we shot down with the F-15. If my google fu is correct, most communication satellites orbit around 22,000. That's not to say that the Chinese technology cant reach higher satellites. In the 80s, Russia and the US both experemented with this but stopped due to "fear of debris entering the atmosphere and causing dammage". I may have to pop in my Red Dawn DVD again, but I bet there was more to it than that.