US Decides NOT To Bomb Canada

[egarrard]

http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=770eea5f-70c0-4af1-aec9-b0248142f16d
Sunday's launch of a U.S. rocket over the North Atlantic was postponed indefinitely Thursday after Canadian officials expressed concern that falling debris could threaten oil platforms off Newfoundland.

Evacuation of several offshore oil projects had already begun when Defence Minister Bill Graham announced the U.S. decision outside the Commons.

Graham said the Americans initially delayed the scheduled Sunday launch for 48 hours, then postponed it indefinitely.

"It allows them to calculate a new trajectory, or whatever else they're going to do" Graham said.

"In any event, it's no longer 48 hours threatening us; it's an indefinite period of time which will allow the political as well as the military considerations to be taken into account." You're welcome! :Wink :Wink :Wink

[Bobenis]

:What the Mmmmm...I wonder where this is going? So hard to predict! Wish I knew...shucks! :lmao

[Bobenis]

OK...here is the full story without any silly snide comments.

U.S. delays rocket mission over Newfoundland

Last Updated Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:18:40 EDT

CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/09/rocket050409.html)

HALIFAX - U.S. Air Force officers have again put off the launch of a rocket that Canadian politicians and oil companies fear could drop space debris on offshore oil platforms near Newfoundland.

The Titan IVB rocket, whose mission has twice been rescheduled, will now launch on April 17 or later from Cape Canaveral, Fla., authorities said on Saturday.

U.S. officers announced the delay while meeting with Canadian federal and provincial officials as well as oil executives in Dartmouth, N.S.

Canadian officials learned on Thursday that the 10,000-kg rocket booster would fall into the North Atlantic near the Hibernia platform on the Grand Banks.

Oil companies had planned to cease production at all rigs and platforms on the Grand Banks and remove more than 400 workers before the launch.

After the delay was announced, the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board said no one would be removed from the platforms on Sunday. Evacuations would start three or four days before any launch, a spokesperson said.

Premier Danny Williams has warned that the move could mean an economic loss of $250 million.

The U.S. said earlier that it had no plans to pick a new flight path that would be farther away from the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose oil fields.

Capt. Joe Macri of the Air Force Space Command in Colorado said Friday that the risk of debris hitting an oil platform is one in a trillion.

The Hibernia platform, 315 kilometres southeast of St. John's, is about two kilometres outside the area where the debris is expected to land, he said.

Some workers were flown off the Hibernia rig on Thursday. Petro-Canada said it would remove staff from the Terra Nova platform on the weekend.

[getit29]

hmmmmm........ the Shuttles boosters doesn't fall in that area when it is launched from
Cape Canaveral, Fla so why is this rocket going that far north in the first place??? That
just doesn't make any sense to me why it would be that far north when the booster is
dropped back into the ocean. WTH is up with that anyway :What the

[egarrard]

hmmmmm........ the Shuttles boosters doesn't fall in that area when it is launched from
Cape Canaveral, Fla so why is this rocket going that far north in the first place??? That
just doesn't make any sense to me why it would be that far north when the booster is
dropped back into the ocean. WTH is up with that anyway :What the
They launch satellites into polar orbits in that direction.

[getit29]

They launch satellites into polar orbits in that direction.
Okay, I didn't think about that and that does make sense for a polar orbit launch :Thumb

[Raedwulf]

The line that got me is that the NATO commander gave the odds of 1 in a million
The landing area is about 2 km away from the hibernia platform

lets put those numbers into perspective
The launch is taking place from where exactly? Cape Canaveral
The Cape is say about 3000 km away (Roughly ... really rough guess)
were' talking about a rocket that can cover 3000 km in under a minute landing 2 km away from an off shore platform
The guy might want to rephrase them odds, I'm sure the rocket scientists can claim to hit the mark (and they have often enough, for example the Mars landers)... but what if something goes wrong, there's no control if telemetry is lost as the rocket is making it's descent

As much as I would like Canada to participate in these tests, I wouldn't want to be on the rig if there's 10000 lbs of space junk heading in my relative vicinty

The other thing to think about, with oil at $55/barrel, the three platforms in the area Hibernia, White Rose, and Terra Nova are expected to pump about 120million barrels in a year. Thats over 300 thousand barrels a day, if the shut down is over a 4 day period, we're talking 1.3 million barrels of lost production for the period of the test

Ka-ching!!! 7 1/4 million dollars!!!

Don't forget, The US loses part of that money too, Conoco Phillips is part of the Consortium among other US players

[egarrard]

Ka-ching!!! 7 1/4 million dollars!!!Not even close to what the rocket and it's payload cost. If it's a spy satellite, the cost could be 100 times that...

[Tivon]

Should we go to war, I may have to kill someone of you... MUHAHAHAH! :Holy Crap

[egarrard]

Should we go to war, I may have to kill someone of you... MUHAHAHAH! :Holy Crap :What the :What the :What the

[CyberGuy]

Should we go to war, I may have to kill someone of you... MUHAHAHAH! :Holy Crap

Oh yeah? Take That! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/e/bigun.gif http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/g/blobfir.gif :taunt

[wazman]

Oh yeah? Take That! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/e/bigun.gif http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/g/blobfir.gif :taunt

Oh, yeah? Well, how about this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y54/wazman928/star-wars-smiley-023.gif

[Tivon]

:What the :What the :What the

It was a joke.... :lmao

















Or was it? :shifty