[Cowperson]

[quote=Lanny_MacDonald]Really Cow? First you are making some pretty big assumptions. You would be saying that you know how all the stages were configured and what their burn times would be. This was supposed to be a missile the United States knew little about, but all of a sudden they are able to say, with very little confirmable data, that they were 100% correct in their assumptions. Seems like bull**** to me.

Well, I see you've abandoned your notion that the direction of the missile couldn't be determined from 40 seconds of data and also your hope that the course could be altered in mid-flight, apparently engaging in a dance across the Pacific.

I don't see a stretch for engineers viewing satellite imagery - capable of seeing the detail of even smaller objects from orbit in real time - determining the dimensions of the missile as it was being readied for launch. . . . . and the probable propellant - liquid or solid - should be obvious from the vehicles surrounding it.

Your predilection for extreme statements is showing again . . . .you're the one who said "100% accurate" . . . . . I said they'd have a pretty good idea . . . . good enough to know the direction and potential range.

Really? Since the rocket never left North Korean airspace I don't think they have the burden of anything, except embarassment that their "hugely dangerous" rocket blew up in their own faces

I said "IF" they overfly Hawaii, it could definitely be construed as an act of war, just as we might have seen of an overflight by a Soviet ICBM of New York.

Its just a stupid thing to do . . . . and we should all agree on that given the lessons of the Cold War.

The North Koreans have executed an unannounced overflight of Japan with a rocket in the past . . . . the lessons of the Cold War apparently lost on them.

It's quite obvious they are the party that shouldn't be trusted in this matter and if they don't like the reputation they have to defend, then maybe they shouldn't have overflown Japan.

In fact, China, the real power broker here, should think about how badly it wants a nuclear-armed Japan in its backyard.

Cowperson