Chinese 'space cleaner' spotted grabbing and throwing away old satellite

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[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

A Chinese satellite was spotted in late January grabbing another long-dead satellite and days later throwing it into a "graveyard" orbit 300 km away, where objects are less likely to hit spacecraft.

Really? Forces applied to equal and opposite directions should throw the thrower... 300 km closer to earth. Assuming similar masses.

They show an image of a 4-fingered robot hand in the article. It's about to grab a satellite.

How is this armless hand expected to throw anything?

[–]Masterblaster 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Nice catch! Maybe the whole story is fake..

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm a huge fan of space. The earth is round.

But...

Rocket Science Proves Rockets Do Not Go Into 'Space'

This evidence cannot be debunked, because it reflects reality.
Regrettably. :-(

This explains why every live space launch is near an ocean, and the rocket flies off into the horizon.

Try to find a video where's rocket flies straight up and into space.
If you have one, then I'd like to see it.

I don't like it either. Facts are facts.

I'm not discounting the possibility of other classified methods of space travel.
I can't prove they don't work.

[–]Smarterthanlastweek2 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I expect that was just poetic license, and they used a rocket engine to boost the two now joined satellites.

[–]Zapped 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It sounded like the cleaner-upper satellite grabbed the old, dead satellite and drug it towards the "graveyard". After they were moving, it then let go and returned to its own orbit. The old one kept travelling until it reached the "graveyard".