FAIL: North Korean Satellite Losing Steam
The North Korean satellite launched last week to global alarm is already failing and falling from orbit, according to satellite trackers using publicly available military data and software to follow the craft. The alarm bells sounded in the White House, National Security Council and Pentagon were not so much for Kwangmyongsong 3-2, the satellite, but ...
The North Korean satellite launched last week to global alarm is already failing and falling from orbit, according to satellite trackers using publicly available military data and software to follow the craft.
The North Korean satellite launched last week to global alarm is already failing and falling from orbit, according to satellite trackers using publicly available military data and software to follow the craft.
The alarm bells sounded in the White House, National Security Council and Pentagon were not so much for Kwangmyongsong 3-2, the satellite, but the massive rocket with two booster stages that threw it into space. That rocket launch, the U.S. fears, lays the groundwork for a potential intercontinental ballistic missile that could someday carry a nuclear warhead, instead of a satellite, all the way to California.
A Pentagon official told the E-Ring the Defense Department would not comment about the status of the satellite, because they do not comment on "intelligence matters."
But a U.S. official tells us, "We haven’t completed our final assessment, but it’s a good chance whatever they put up there is deaf, blind, and mute."
North Korea Tech, a website, explains why they know the craft is failing, based on data released by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) here.
You can follow the satellite zooming across the Google map via this website.
Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron
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