Is North Korea lying about its upcoming rocket launch?

An amateur satellite-watcher has accused North Korea of lying about its plans for an upcoming satellite launch. Ted Molczan crunched the numbers on the rocket’s planned flight path, according to a notice given to regional shipping and airline companies, and found they did not match up with claims from the DPRK’s government. Apparently he’s not the only one who thinks that things might not be what they seem. In an email to Wired, Air Force Space Command officer Brian Weeden expressed his own doubts about the honesty of the official story. “This is a country that has never successfully placed a satellite into orbit and doesn’t have a satellite industry,” said Weeden. “To try and put a fairly advanced satellite — remote sensing and weather, using UHF radio and X-band satellite communications — into a fairly precise orbit is quite the undertaking.” (photo by David Guttenfelder/AP)  source

Follow ShortFormBlog