This Week in Space

I came across this tonight as I was doing some pre-bedtime reading. I had read a short article about the US wanting to shoot down this thing last week. This is what we've come up with.

Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference last week that the military is fairly confident that the Navy's SM-3 missile, fired from aboard a cruiser in the Pacific, will hit the satellite.

"I think Secretary Gates shares that confidence," Morrell said. (from Yahoo News article)

The military is "fairly confident" that this thing is going to work. Secretary Gates shares that "confidence"?

Look, I know the thing is way up in space and all. But if we're going to start firing off rockets that cost God-only-knows-how-much towards satellites that cost God-only-knows-how-much, I'd like to think we could do better than "fairly confident." Heck, I'm "fairly confident" that I could shoot the thing down with my old iron sights 30/30. I'd hope that with our military's advanced technology we could at least be "pretty sure" about this.