記事: http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-21-voa19.cfm
音声あり。
落下中の衛星の撃墜に米軍が成功との知らせ。火球と、ヒドラジンと思われる蒸気の雲が観測され、ミサイルは衛星を単に破壊できただけでなく燃料タンクのある箇所を直撃できたと分析されるという。今回、弾道ミサイルよりもずっと高速かつ高高度の目標を撃墜するため、ミサイルに改造が加えられたが、一回限りの処置であり標準化する予定はないという。なおデータを分析して成果を確定するには一日か二日を要するとのこと。
単語:
- hydrazine
- ヒドラジン。
- spectral analysis
- スペクトル解析。
- airborne
- a plane that is airborne is in the air.
- debris
- デブリ(space debris)。
- burn up
- if something burns up or is burnt up, it is completely destroyed by fire or heat.
- thus far
- until now.
- on alert
- ready to notice and deal with a situation or problem.
- respiratory
- relating to breathing or your lungs.
- deteriorate
- to become worse.
- guidance
- the process of directing a missile while it is flying through the air.
書き取り:
The number-two U.S. military officer, General James Cartwright, showed a video of the impact,
and said analysts believed the warhead, which has no explosive charge of its own,
not only destroyed the satellite,
but hit the exact spot where tank of dangerous hydrazine fuel was located.
"
We have a fireablefireball,
and given that there wasis no fuel,
that waswould indicated asthat that's a hydrazine, fire.
We have a vapor cloud that formed.
tThat, again, would be
likely to be the hydrazine.
We also have some a suspectedspectral analysis from airborne platforms that indicate
the presence of hydrazine
after the intercept."
But General Cartwright sayssaid experts need to do
more analysis to be absolutely sure the tank was destroyed
and the fuel burned up.
He says U.S. military and civilian space radars are tracking the debris from the impact,
and that some pieces have already entered the earth's atmosphere and burned up.
"It generally takes us about a day to two days just to start to get a good sense of each piece of materials up there. Thus far, we've seen nothing larger than a football."
The general says that, and the paths of the debris,
mainly over water,
means there is now little danger to people on the ground,
but he says military units remain on alert to help
in case any small pieces of the satellite
do hit populated areas.
The main concern was the hydrazine fuel,
which can cause less pratoryrespiratory problems and even cancer.
General Cartwright says the State Department is keeping other nations informed of the paths of the debris,
but he sayssaid no country has been notified that it is at a particular risk.
The failed satellite, believed to have had an intelligence mission,
was launched 14 months ago,
and stopped responding to commands almost immediately.
Since then,
it has been onin a deteriorating orbit,
and it willwould have freely re-entered into the atmosphere
ofon its own in the coming weeks.
Some countries have criticized the U.S. decision,
saying the operation was a revealablethinly-veiled
test of a new anti-satellite weapon system.
But officials have consistently denied that, and General Cartwright did so again on Thursday.
He said the missile, and two others that were standing by,
haved special modifications, what he calls "mods",
and will be returned to regular service
as part of the new system designed to defend the United States
from a ballistic missile attack.
"This is a one-time mods.
It is, if you put this mod in,
we can't use tothe ship for,or the missile,
for another function without taking the mods out, so
it's not something that we would be entering into the service
in some standard way.
This is a one-time type of event."
General Cartwright and other experts say
this was a particularly difficult technological challenge
because both the missile and guidance software had to be modified,
and because the satellite was somewhat higher and moving much faster than the incoming missiles,
the system was designed to intercept.
Officials have described the missile defense system
as trying to use a bullet to hit a bullet.
The general said a warhead and a missile hit each other
at a combined closing speed of 35,000 kilometers per hour,
about 280 kilometers above the earth.
General Cartwright, who is the vVice cChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
says Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the missile launch
about 8 hours before it happened.
He sayssaid bad weather in the area, where the Navy task force was operating,
cleared in time for the very narrow launch window of
less than a minute.
Official sourceshad said they would not launch the missile
unless conditions were nearly perfect
and the chances of success very high.
The general reports those involved in the project reacted
when sensors indicated they haved succeeded.
"You can't imagine
at the point of intercept last night,
there were futuresa few cheers
from people who have spent
Maydaymany days working on this project."
But the general says analysts will continue to work on the data
for another day or two,
to be sure the fuel tank was destroyed,
and will continue to monitor the debris to ensure
no large pieces hit populated areas,
untiland to respond with help if they do.
単語補充:
