Satellites collide

[RedFox]

Following these things as they develop its suddenly dawned on me that perhaps the reason for the original story of satellites colliding was create the idea of this field of space junk which they can use to blame all the space activity and moving of the space station/shuttle (and presumably if it carries on damage to other satellites and more falling 'space junk') on.
Its interesting looking back to see what media coverage this satellite collision and junk got, and how people will now readily buy this as the cause for all this activity without question.
A new word for you automatic unconscious dictionary for filtering out reality (along with 'terror') 'space junk'!
Interesting that the cover story needed to be so well covered by the media.....I think that can give a clue to how busy it is (getting) up there.

Perhaps everyone else already saw this and I only just got it... :P

 

[Pierre]

Following these things as they develop its suddenly dawned on me that perhaps the reason for the original story of satellites colliding was create the idea of this field of space junk which they can use to blame all the space activity and moving of the space station/shuttle (and presumably if it carries on damage to other satellites and more falling 'space junk') on.

If those two satellites were destroyed by the same swarm of meteors, it was indeed a very astute move to blame a collision.

However, if three satellites get damaged at the same time it might be more difficult to invoke collision again

 

[Keit]

Just making a note here for all of us to pay attention to the sky (and the news) for the next couple of days, since other SOTT readers also noticed the following "coincidence":

First, there is this article: Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2000 EM26 zipping by Earth on February 17, 2014

and then this:

Defunct Soviet reconnaissance satellite may hit Earth

A decommissioned Soviet military satellite will burn up in the atmosphere Sunday in an uncontrolled descent and surviving fragments may hit Earth, according to an aerospace defense official.

The military is actively monitoring the satellite using its space tracking network, which has indicated that it will impact the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said Friday.

"As of February 7, 2014 the fragments are expected to fall on February 16. The exact impact time and location of the fragments from the Kosmos-1220 satellite may change due to external factors," Zolotukhin said.

Uncertainty over the reentry time means that the satellite, orbiting in a high-inclination orbit, could impact nearly any point on Earth's surface, including populated areas.

BUT, apparently the Universe has a very interesting sense of humor, because there is ANOTHER coincidence, as in Dejavu of last year's passing asteroid followed by the Chelyabinsk event:

One year ago, on February 15, 2013, the world witnessed two amazing events - one expected and the other not. Astronomers anticipated the arrival of super-close asteroid 2012 DA14 - a 40,000 ton space rock, 98 ft (30 m) in diameter, due to miss Earth by a measly 17,200 miles (27,680 km) - closer even than our geosynchronous satellites. In fact, NEA 2012 DA14 was the closest object of that size to whiz past Earth in our lifetimes. Slooh successfully tracked DA14 live from its Canary Island observatory using special imaging techniques (see highlight under video section below).

On that same day, however, something else unexpectedly tore through the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging thousands of houses, breaking innumerable windows, and causing injuries from broken glass. This object, later discovered to be an asteroid as well, was 65 ft (20 m) in diameter and exploded 18 miles above Siberia releasing the equivalent energy of more than 20 plus atomic bombs (approximately 460 kilotons of TNT).

So it should be interesting.