The US military launched 500M needles into space (2019)

I&#x27;m surprised the article doesn&#x27;t mention the potential fast track to Kessler syndrome, the name for a phenomenon in which it becomes impossible to safely put things in orbit because every object placed in orbit is rapidly impacted and disintegrated into more debris in orbit.<p>Purposely injecting debris into orbit, even if it&#x27;s at a low orbit, seems not good!

&gt; consider that also smack dab in the middle of this time, the United States was busy accidentally nuking Britain’s first satellite, among many, many others.<p>Woah... anybody have more info on that?<p>Edit: more info here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Starfish_Prime" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Starfish_Prime</a>

Great article! The needles formed a passive repeater, which would be a cheap alternative to a comsat. To me, the more interesting part of the article was the history of exo-atomospheric nuclear testing and the consequences to the satellites that were operating in that era.<p>It&#x27;s also interesting that the scientific community&#x27;s objections to further launches actually had an effect. That doesn&#x27;t seem to be the case anymore -- at least not with Starlink.

&gt;would have to rely on the mood of said ionosphere.<p>From launching needles into space to HAARP, lots of study in making the ionosphere more dependable.<p>HAARP was fun fodder for consipiracy types back in the 90s. Even the wikipedia article doesn&#x27;t touch but a fraction of the stories I&#x27;ve heard of: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program#Conspiracy_theories" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-frequency_Active_Auroral_...</a>

Curious: what happened to them?<p>Sure, at this point none should still be in orbit because LEO has too much drag. But did they definitely burn up on re-entry? Or did the American Government cover the planet in a fine layer of tiny needles?

This is a link to the original post: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.todayifoundout.com&#x2F;index.php&#x2F;2019&#x2F;10&#x2F;that-time-the-u-s-military-launched-a-half-a-billion-needles-to-space-for-reasons&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.todayifoundout.com&#x2F;index.php&#x2F;2019&#x2F;10&#x2F;that-time-t...</a><p>written by Melissa Blevins <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;blevinsmelissa&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;blevinsmelissa&#x2F;</a>

I wonder if those needle clumps that remain in orbit are still useful for communication? The article mentioned that a nuke launch damaged some satellites at the time. Wouldn&#x27;t needles also have the advantage that they have no circuits that could be fried from EMPs or radiation? I&#x27;m not sure to what extent you can shield satellites today - but it is something to think about.

&quot;<i>Presumably it would have been even worse had everyone realized the United States had, a few years before this, planned to nuke the moon, more or less just because they could…</i>&quot;<p>Do have to say, that was a glorious era of scientific tomfoolery.

great article! I loved the tidbits at the bottom too. found a good list of wake up songs from nasa here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nasa.gov&#x2F;mission_pages&#x2F;shuttle&#x2F;shuttlemissions&#x2F;sts135&#x2F;135_wakeup.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nasa.gov&#x2F;mission_pages&#x2F;shuttle&#x2F;shuttlemissions&#x2F;s...</a>

Come for the needles, stay for the Space DJs.

If I had to determine whether a planet was hostile, &quot;fired 500 million needles into space&quot; would be pretty freakin high up on my criteria

&gt;Today in our digital world, of course, a similar electromagnetic pulse would have much more catastrophic effects, especially if near more populated centers, potentially even revealing the Lizard people’s Matrix, which would be catastrophic to our Draconian overlords’ (may they reign forever) plans…<p>I loved this joke they threw in there

half a billion needles put in orbit without consultation? pricks.

I skipped the article and found the Wikipedia page, which satisfied my curiosity from the headline: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Project_West_Ford" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Project_West_Ford</a>