US "Spy" Satellite To Be Shot Down

I may just be posting this purely in jest...

Can't remember the last time a US "spy" satellite had to be shot down. Maybe because there never has been one needin' shootin'. The Yanks want the world to believe this satellite is a simple "spy satellite". Couldn't be further from the truth. Spy satellites have sensitive camera and surveillance equipment, but never have they needed to be shot down because of hazardous materials on board. Especially rocket propellant.

Why does the presence of rocket propellant concern this writer? What is America's urgency to shoot it down? Perhaps because this satellite contained a huge quantity of the rocket propellant (not that this coming down on a civilian population has ever been a concern before). Propellant of this sort is used to fuel rocket boosters, but also is usable on missiles - like the type used on SDI ("Star Wars") anti-ballistic missile defense shields. This includes nuclear missiles.

What don't the Americans want the world to know? Spy satellites have come down to earth before. Could they be afraid of a "defense satellite" - potentially armed with ballistic missile defense technologies - perhaps even space-bourne nuclear warheads - being found out?

A normal surveillance satellite should come crashing to earth, and mostly burn up on re-entry. Nothing for a foreign power to learn from, or benefit in any way from. Now (and I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but...) a satellite loaded with space-WMDs - perhaps even a nuclear load, when the US has been afraid to admit to the nuclear weaponization of space - that's something the Pentagon would want to hide. Nothing like a 500 mile long trail of fallout to make you look like the world's bad guy - especially if it comes down near a civilian population. That would be a tough one to "PR away".

The US has continued to weaponize space at an alarming rate. There is no doubt there are nukes somewhere in the equation. We really hope someone starts to offset the global power imbalance that seems to let some powers do whatever they feel they want to.

(If this writer's place of work happens to have part of a recently shot down US defense satellite fall through the roof, you'll know I was right).