Re: shootin down that recon satellite

On Feb 16, 8:43 pm, "andrew.higg...@xxxxxxxxx"
<andrew.higg...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Surely, the NRO satellite was design with the possibility in mind that
it might someday reenter in an uncontrolled fashion and land somewhere
that would be less-than-desirable for national security interests.

They aren't design for a low probability event. Standard practice is
for a controlled entry

For example, standard practice for sensitive military electronics is to
build them on a substrate of Pryofuze, an energetic reacting Pd/Al
alloy that can be triggered to "burn" (exothermally alloy), generating
over 2000 K and melting circuits, etc. Recall reports of the "puff of
smoke" that was observed when the EP-3 spy plane opened its doors
after being forced down in China. These are examples of active devices
(i.e., they need to be triggered), but I can't conceive that a similar
passive self-destruct mechanism is absent from the more sensitive NRO
satellite components.

Very easy to conceive that there isn't. Don't want the added weight
or complexity
.

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