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Russia Military To Shoot Down Meteors

After a surprising meteor shower sent meteorites crashing on sonic speeds in the Ural mountains of Russia, injuring thousands, the Russian military said Wednesday it will develop technology to shoot them down before the hit Earth.

Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces said it did not shoot down the surprise meteorite on Feb 15, but it will in the future. Military commander Major General Igor Makushev said the military will develop a series of measures aimed at protecting Russia from falling meteorites and other dangerous space objects. “The Aerospace Defense Forces have been ordered to handle this issue and come up with a plan to protect Russia from these ‘space travelers,’” Makushev told Ria Novosti newswire on Wednesday.

NASA estimated the meteorite was roughly 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter when it entered Earth’s atmosphere, travelling faster than the speed of sound, and exploded into a fireball brighter than the sun. Amateur video show by Russian television depicted a white streak of light like the cloud from a jetliner quickly expanding to a large white ball that eventually sent shock waves throughout the city of Chelyabinsk. None of the existing celestial tracking systems, either Russian or American, detected the meteor until it entered the atmosphere,” Director of the Astronomy Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Shustov told the newswire.


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  • grokpie grokpie 1 year ago

    Rock, entering Earth’s atmosphere, burning itself up as it streaks at 33,000 mph that it creates plasma, which was at one point 50+ feet across, will be shot down?

    With what…an x-ray laser that can physically track in real-time, an object faster than the fastest known experimental plane in the world?

    And what of the fragments of the even-larger rock, that didn’t have the chance to burn up in the atmosphere?

    And what of the satellites in space, within the beam spread of that x-ray laser?

    Apparently people have taken Missile Command too literally.

  • Anon Anon 1 year ago

    This is clearly bluster. The meter was traveling at around mach 50. Way faster than they can shoot down. And if they hit it, what happens? It still explodes.

  • Anon Anon 1 year ago

    how do you shoot down a meteor? Its already falling…

  • cya paradise cya paradise 1 year ago

    The meteor was not detected until it started to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. It was traveling at 33,000 mph, far faster than any bullet, or missile that any country on this planet has. The only thing that could hit it, would be a laser. But, I doubt that the Russians would have enough time to even try and lock-in a laser weapon upon a meteor headed towards the ground. The Russians are merely providing lip-service with their claim to stop future meteor strikes.

  • Kenneth Rapoza Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor 1 year ago

    They are talking about other meteors, not that one. But who knows. We already have the tech to land on an asteroid so maybe they will perfect that kind of technology. Nudge the thing out of the way. Then again, most asteroids and meteors are not tracked, so many of them will simply slip through.

  • Anon Anon 1 year ago

    Landing on an asteroid is do-able (but still very hard), primarily because the orbit is known well in advance. And also because we get to be picky about which asteroid to land on. We can’t just pick an arbitrary rock right now, things have to be just right.

    Deflection technology, if it is to be developed also depends on early detection.

    Shooting down things once they have already hit the atmosphere is way too late.

  • It would seem a bit ‘far fetched’ to think that any Military would be capable on detecting, intercepting and destroying any celestial body traveling at MACH plus.

    In the immortal words of General Buck Turgindson “Mr. President, if I may speak freely, the Russkie talks big, but frankly, we think he’s short of know how. I mean, you just can’t expect a bunch of ignorant peons to understand a machine like some of our boys.”

  • DeezNuts DeezNuts 1 year ago

    How did this make it past the editors? “Russia Military To Shoot Down Meteorites”- is the headline, but it should read “Russia Military To Shoot Down METEORS”. Meteorites are what’s left when a meteor hits the ground. The military wants to shoot meteors so all that’s left is a bunch of small rocks that would burn up, or leave behind small meteorites that would do less damage.

  • Kenneth Rapoza Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor 1 year ago


  • Lasers are not going to shoot anything down, especially meteorites. Sorry!