They're starting from scratch, just like we were fifty years ago. We had our share of rocket failures too. And if they're telling the truth that this is a weather satellite, that's much more complicated than Sputnik, which did nothing more than beep for a day before running out of power. The more complex something is, the more ways it can fail. Our first two orbital Mercury capsules (Glenn's Friendship 7 and Carpenter's Aurora 7) would have spun out of control too because of instrumentation errors, had there not been a human riding them to diagnose the problems.

There's a reason people say "it's not rocket science" - rocket science is HARD. Orbital flight is HARD. The fact that they could reach orbit at all, even an uncontrollable one, is an achievement for them.

Nah - it is not tumbling, it is doing a North Korean GANGNAM style dance. D'jer know how HARD that is?

With their satellite tumbling out of control in a North/South orbit over Earth's poles, it sounds like North Korea has finally succeeded in securing bipolar disorder for the benefit of every single one of their fellow countrymen. Truly a day of pride for the Democratic People 's Republic of North Korea.

The U.S. Govt. downplaying the fact that North Korea successfully launched a 3 stage rocket. that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads to the USA. They were working hand in hand with Iran , the satellite is a after thought...

classic quote from Panetta " we dont know what is going on " This administration always seems confused when something important happens. (syria, benghazi, iran) when will the mistakes of the past cost us dearly here at home !!!!

Technically, it isn't rocket science, it's astronautical engineering :-p

Anyway, I doubt North Korea cared much about the satellite.

Hope it tumbles down to my house..inside house or back yard..I only give it up to highest bidder!

Its rare I'm home..so no problem to me...some do have to work for a living.

Instead of a monkey they should launch their leader Kim Ding Ding into space. The world would be a better place.

Hey rick's real : just watched CNN and it just stated everything I posted earlier. that the rocket can reach california and also interviewed panetta and he was caught off guard.. you liberals need to quit watching msdnc, they are the biggest liars in media a purposely leave out news that is negative to the chosen one !

So koreans launch a satellite, we launch our unmanned drone into space, korean satellite starts to tumble out of control.

Am I the only one getting this?

Mike kinda forgets that the GOP president and congress were asleep at the switch on 9/11/01

The US and Russians had captured German scientists who had invented the things and considerably more domestic resources to build them. Plus, N. Korea's only conduit to the outside world is China, and China probably doesn't want the little bastard to have them, either.

I hope it crashes close to our community. We could recycle the tin and aluminum and make some good money.

Give bob1008224 the six-degrees of separation "Nutter Award" for being able to tie any world event back to George Bush. Obama has nothing to worry about; his drones will cover for him for years if not decades.

Does the UN get their educations in US public schools? Last time I checked, Missiles carried warheads and Rockets carried Payloads into space. And no, I'm not stupid and can figure out they can be retro-fitted, but I fear my own government illegally detaining me, more than I fear North Korea raining nukes on my country.

North Korea orbits something. So where will you be when the EMP hits ?

Answer: In the Dark!

Sara = moron

@Drknowalittle. If you had read the articles about the last launch they did and the tour that US observers took you would have seen the photos of the equipment the North Koreans are using in their launch control room. It pretty much looks like it's 70's surplus most likely from the Russians. They are definitely not using current technology

Pole to pole? More like "roley-poley" by "daddies little fatty". I wouldn't bet He'll be a Man someday.

Good thing N.Korea doesn't have oil or we'd have a good reason to attack them..Had Iran done this we would be in another war...

In regards to the liberals and conservatives arguing, and calling each other names... No one is thinking they will change the other ones mind or dogma right? So its just basically Jr.High name calling without worry of someone getting their azz kicked...I dont have a problem with it, well other then it just gets old, just was wondering if there was some point to it.

Sara might actually be in North Korea--she doesn't appear to have any good intelligence on America.

Hey Rick, Keep your head in your a$$,you know what I'm talking about,right? Like Bill "Bildo" Clinton did with Bin Laden's first attempted bombing of The World Trade Center! That's the Democrat thing to do, yell WTF after the $hit's already hit the fan!

Now all we have to do is identify the submarine that pulled up alongside Los Angeles Ca. and fired a ballistic missile......... Listen to the silence. Your government is saying nothing. If you dont know what Im talking about then go back to sleep. You're useless.

They're starting from scratch, just like we were fifty years ago.

@yeahbuhwha - Not exactly. We and the Russians in an agreement shared the German Nazi "rocket scientists." We got Von Braun. Both we and the Russians would have been nowhere near where we were in the 1960s (and beyond) without their expertise.

The good news is "this administration" will not likely be descriptive of a Republican in that office for years - if not decades - to come.

@ Rickreal - we'll see in four more years when America goes bankrupt ala Greece based on the last four years of Democrats not passing a budget in the Senate and Obamacare essentially destroying what we had left of health care (and jobs). But you just stick your head back in the sand and watch your liberal news networks like MSNBC and DNCNN and let them tell you everything is fine.

And you liberal Dems that get hysterical and call people "racists" and "haters" for being against Obama's America-wrecking policies, you liberal Dem union pals who tear down tents and punch people in faces who just want debate, actually have the gall to call Republicans drama queens? That's hilarious! Pot, meet honkin' kettle!

Mike kinda forgets that the GOP president and congress were asleep at the switch on 9/11/01

@bob - No they weren't. Not any more than the Democrats that sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time were (yeah DEMOCRATS were in Washington too!). Besides, there was not a single shred of evidence of any SPECIFICS on an imminent attack via hijacked airliners. And even if there WERE, about the only way we could have prevented it would have been to profile Muslims and Middle Easterners and ban them from flying. But we know how well that would have "flown over" with you liberals. PROFILING and BANNING ethnic groups???!!! Oh the humanity!!!

We've heard that lame brain "argument" from you liberals before that the GOP was asleep at the switch. Sorry, but that dog won't hunt, pal. (Ironically Obama WAS asleep when the Libya Consulate was attacked...yeah the Libya that Obama invaded and took out Khadaffi).

Liberals live in their own emotion-driven vacuum of a pixie-dusted Utopia that doesn't exist.

@Bob 1008224 - Just like FDR and the Dems were on 12/07/41, eh?

How typical. They can't do anything right in North Korea. A desolate and technologically challenged country both controlled and hindered by a dictatorship passed down from crazy father to crazier son. I love the blurb in the media recently about North Korea acting like a "spoiled child." Ummmm... Hello? They don't have anything there to be spoiled on save propaganda and bullets to the head if you don't comply. Unless they were talking about United States aid.. Then again, I don't think anyone sees any of that except at the very top. It's like yet another black hole of third world corruption.

Bob Young I was thinking the same thing EMP orbiting the earth. Out of control until It passes over to the USA then lights out. We should shoot it down then figure out what it was. Iran is also a supporter of the NK rockets. On CNN out front they were talking about it.

Joey and Bobyoung- That was the first thing I thought too when I read the article. I mean they say they have nukes and now they prove that they can deliver a payload to orbit. Pole to Pole, USA is going to be below that thing sooner or later. Scary thought. Most people aren't prepared for or even aware of the possibility for a disaster of this proportion.

Be safe out there.

For people who do not know what an EMP is. Electromagnetic Pulse. Could be brought on by detonation of an atomic or nuclear device in space. Low Earth orbit over the USA. And we would lose much of our power and communications. Anything electrical that was turned on would be toast.

http://www.futurescience.com/emp.html

They keep Christians in concentration camps and the world is unconcerned.

Judging by this administrations failure to help hurricane victims in the Northeast, an EMP over America would leave us all on our own.

Excellent link joey. I work with electronics and understand all too well what would happen if a decent size nuke was detonated a few hundred miles above Kansas. Our electronic gadgets and life-sustaining technologies are very fragile indeed and not much of our infrastructure is sufficiently hardened against such an event. Likely the most significant and disastrous event in human history if it were to occur, but wouldn't have had much of an effect 200 years ago.

Davidm,

If a really big event were to occur, you are definitely on your own. Don't count on FEMA or the president to save you, whether it's some nutcase republican or some idiot democrat (or even a sensible independent or libertarian) in office, they will be hiding in their bunkers. You can pray to Jesus all you want, but he ain't gonna help you either. You are correct, we will all be on our own. Have fun!

Fail. Only question is.. has the development and mission control team been taken out and shot yet...

@mike-2598123 - " This administration always seems confused when something important happens. (syria, benghazi, iran) when will the mistakes of the past cost us dearly here at home !!!!"

Why? Because they aren't going to war with everyone like the GOP did? Bush was asleep at the wheel leading up to 9/11, went to war with a country that didn't have any WMD's, and we lost numerous soldiers and countless civilians died. Based on that judgment I wouldn't exactly trust the GOP to know when or if mistakes will cost us dearly at home.

I guess that doesn't count though does it Mike since you probably think the Republicans are perfect?

Is it still 12/12/12 there?

Mike said:

The U.S. Govt. downplaying the fact that North Korea successfully launched a 3 stage rocket. that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads to the USA.

I mean, what do you really want the Government to say here "aaaaahh run for your lives, the nukes are coming!!" Of course they are down playing it. I imagine there is a lot of meetings and running around in the Pentagon today, and I have no expectation that they'll tell me anything.

Shoot it down world. We don't want that thing falling on anyone!

EMP weapons are a ridiculous bugbear. The fact that people are actually suggesting that such a weapon would come from North Korea, who JUST managed to master basic LEO space flight, is even more absurd.

A few common-sense points:

1) An EMP attack caused by a nuclear warhead suggests that the North Koreans have/could mount a warhead on top of a rocket. They can't do that yet; they haven't mastered the technology to make nuclear warheads that small.

2) A successful EMP attack would cause significant damage to American infrastructure without directly killing anyone or causing the kind of devastation of a direct nuclear strike. So in effect they would have declared war, launched the first attack, and succeeded in really pissing off the US without causing much irreparable damage; then what? They can't possibly invade us, and our military assets are scattered too far for them to ever knock them all out. A counter-attack would be coming, there's no possible way they would win an actual war, and they don't even have a few million dead Americans to show for it.

Even if the North Koreans were capable of an EMP strike, it's an incredibly roundabout, useless thing to do. If you're going to be needlessly terrified of something, at least stick to the nuclear weapons. At least we know those work.

Hey there Mr. SF Accountant. I hope I never have someone as naive as you in charge of my important financial matters.

Your feel good talk about "not causing much irreparable damage" is a bunch of short sighted hogwash... have you considered for a moment how quickly our society would devolve back to a true and certain "Survival of the Fittest" environment? That means those who can't aggressively defend thier family will die, no doubt about it, at the hands of animals who just days or weeks ago were your friendly neighbors.

If you seriously think we'd be the same society ever again after a successful EMP attack, your just kidding yourself. Many parts of this country would unihabitable during the winter or summer, depending upon climate. And we surely wouldn't be able to migrate with the seasons without our transportation infrastructure as we know it today.

Yes, you sit in your office crunching numbers and keep thinking none of this will affect you.

Me and my family, well, we'll be prepared. We'll fight the gimmedat's who come to take what we have been fortunate enough to stockpile - beans, bullets, and bullion. Call me crazy if you will, but these items are better that a savings account at the dismal rate of return on savings. My food stores increasin in value faster than most investments. And my bullets are worth more than any worthless paper. The bullion, well, it will always be worth something.

You are correct in that we would finish the attacker off with a counter strike of epic proportions, but when the enemy doesn't care whether they live or die, only that they inflict pain upon the USA, what have we gained?

There are no easy answers, but one cannot pretend that all is good and fine. It is not, and your thinking will ensure your and many millions of fellow Americans demise. Sad, but true.

OK , you are crazy!

ha! another dud rocket launch,they can get better rockets from phantom fireworks !

New Olympic event: "Tumbling Satellites!"

North Korea with new rocket technology. Syria with Chemical Weapons Iran with who the h3ll knows... Russia and China hate us too.... 75% of the population hates us for all kinds of dumb a77 reasons... Its probably just a matter of time...

It's supposed to tumble .... They were surprised by the fact that it made it to orbit, none of the others have. This time the comrade in charge of throwing the switch to turn the satellite on prior to launch was busy sweeping the launch site...

In other news:

5's look more like "S" than 7's

Seriously? No...5hit Really??!! Good catch Dumb A55!! :)

^_^

Glad I could be of assistance!

Wouldn't surprise me if we had something to do with the tumbling part.

@ klondiko

Our most top secret OTV which every amateur and professional has a telescope trained on after every single top secret launch is going to pull some space-warfare stunt to screw with Pyongyang and cause an international incident by blatantly violating the Space Treaty

...

...

LOL...even if we have that technology, I doubt we would do something so stupid.

Let the Chinese be the first to blow it by flagrantly putting weapons platforms up there. The last thing the US needs to do is to give the other space-faring nations any easy excuse for placing weapons platforms in orbit.

@skibum609 I think you picked the wrong example with the Chinese. They have had a world class manned space flight program for the last five years. Not even the Europeans by themselves have done what the Chinese have accomplished recently. You would be off-track to compare them to the North Korean wannabe ICBM program.

Alan, any additional information on what actually achieved orbit would be greatly appreciated!! Perhaps the third stage did not separate cleanly from the "payload", whatever that was...

Check out china's stealth fighter. They do not all live in mud huts.

Yes do check out China's stealth fighters, which looks VERY similar to Western designs.....it is obvious the Chinese did not come up with the technology on their own....more likely based on STOLEN information. And yes not ALL of them live in mud huts....the MAJORITY do. Considering how large China is, urban areas are few and far between.

China is the #1 copy cat in the world..if its made they will copy it..to stupid to invent it themselfs!

The US space program started out with spectacular failures at first also. Lots of exploding rockets and tumbling satellites as well as more dead astronauts than all other space programs combined so, lets not get carried away with who's too stupid to do what.

Lot of people here dont realise it but the Chinese have a space station in orbit----

Considering that Chinese intellegence is FAR beyond any normal american could ever dream about... I doubt they stole the technology... China is a TECHNOLOGY nation.. Many years ahead of us most likely...

To all the posters who speak of great China technology. It's called reverse engineering from technology that they have stolen from the west!

Maxi - Very true.

@mike277#4.4: China isn't stupid. They don't have to invent anything. If it's made anywhere, top secret, or otherwise, the original makers will always end up having the Chinese do their work. Chinese work cheap. Greed trumps loyalty, security and patriotism every time. Hell, just look at the US.

Its really confusing why the whole world cannot get along with each other. The entire population of the

world could live somewhat comfortably in a city the size of Los Angeles, CA. The world IS large enough for

the 7-9 billion people who live here and right now there IS enough resources for everyone! Why are there so

many people who hate each other???

To be fair to the Chinese space program, it's actually a pretty good one... and largely indigenous. they've been developing their own tech for decades now, for it, and doing a pretty decent job of it, at their own pace. They've basically achieved what only the US and Russia had up until the mid-2000s.

As for countries copying stuff.. a lot of Chinese military hardware (as opposed to their space program) IS, in fact, stolen from us (or outright bought from the Russians)... but when countries steal tech to improve their own military capabilities, it isn't called theft. It's called spycraft, and, like it or not, it's how things get done. The problem isn't the stealing or copying part.. it's when they finally figure out how to do it better than the stuff their spies stole, which is, unfortunately, inevitable.

As for North Korea, they're hopeless. They don't have the right training, managerial systems or technology to steal and copy from the Chinese, much less, us, and the only people really willing to work with them are pretty much all as bad they are - Iran, Myanmar and the like. Even if they managed to make a multi-stage vehicle, it still doesn't have a guidance system, solid fuel propellent, and any of half a dozen other critical systems required for a modern missile to really have real offensive capability against an intercontinental or even regional target (none of this will save Seoul of course, which is only 30 miles away from their border, if it ever came to war, be c'est la vie).

Or even Nickelodeon.

Kim Kardashian isn't a crazy f**er..!

I thought Jerry Falwell died....

In other news, Francisco Franco is STILL dead.

It wouldn't matter if Kim The Next One died. They'd just replace him with another nutjob to be the public face of the nation while they go about their paranoid scheming and oppression behind the scenes.

If Un has any power, I would be surprised, but neither North Korea nor the state of the world would be improved by him dying and being replaced by some other general or family member.

Unfortunately it would probably just crush a bunch of starving, beaten-down, NK citizens instead while little dictator and fortunate wife skip away to buy more designer duds. Fate kind of sucks like that.

Chances are it will disintegrate while falling through the atmosphere toward Earth. Because 75 percent of Earth is covered by water, it is likely any remains will fall harmlessly into the ocean. But our authorities will track and predict its trajectory and provide sufficient warning to anyone who might be affected.

Yes, like the crash position on an airliner. Bend over and kiss your behind goodbye.

Except the kissing action is typically impossible except for only the most flexible...at least before impact.

We built this little thing called the "missile shield" that everyone seems to forget about. It was built specifically for a situation like this :-)

I doubt it will survive re-entry.

They probably forgot to add control features :)

"To recover so quickly from technical problems suggests they have gotten good at putting together a missile."

Wow, what a brilliant conclusion, if the RAND think tank analyst is correct that there were actually technical problems to be fixed..

Who cares what the little flat-faced butterball does?

The Pillsbury Doughboy doesn't seem to realize that a single ICBM doesn't make him a threat...it makes him a target. And a depressed trajectory shot from the Sea of Japan wouldn't be that much of a challenge. Outer doors open to detonation over target (his summer cottage, for example) would be about 40 seconds.

i dont think the "satellite" was actually supposed to do anything other than simulate the weight of a warhead on the rocket. considering this is their first rocket to successsfully reach space i doubt they put any kind of functional satellite on board.since we cant see it, could be just a bust of kim il sung or a great big metal hand flipping the bird as it tumbles through space.

would you get this idea Fox news?

Right, you forget that North Korea is bat-@!$%# insane and now has possible nuclear capabilities, combined with a 3 stage rocket. Also, where are you getting these 1 million dead numbers?

I'm not denying that we poke our nose into other country's business entirely too much, but at least the citizens of the US enjoy a good amount of freedom still. I can talk all the @!$%# I want about the President, members of congress, etc and I don't get arrested for it (aside from making threats of course). Try doing that in North Korea, China, Russia, etc....

You're right! I can't wait for a world where the U.S. is disarmed and North Korea can project nuclear power anywhere in the world. I know I'll sleep better at night.

1 million dead in Afghanistan? Really? What is your source?

Ben-3027972, You asked "What we get for these terrorist acts? It sure as heck isn't goodwill from the rest of the world."

We get safety.

You libtards are pretty hard to take. You folks really dont pay attention do you? N. Korea is one of the biggest helpers to Iran who pass on weapons to Hezbolla and other middle eastern terrorists. You say "Little Ol N Korea" as if to diminish their threat. Move there or just go visit. You live in the safety of the country you demonize. You have no idea what your talking about. Go watch Rachael maddow and hush.

@hookr23 - No, I think ben just has a few screws missings. I know plenty of liberals that aren't as crazy as he is....

Please don't lump all of us libtards--we are not all lunatics.

Ben, drugs are bad for you. Stop before you do permanent damage!

I know it sounds weird to say this, but Ben does have a point at least concerning perspective.

It's hard for me to be scared of North Korea possibly having a nuclear weapon that can reach the West coast, where I live, when that doesn't hold a candle to our own military capability. Making a big deal about North Korea's launch is probably the best result they could have hoped for; fear and attention is the only diplomatic resources Korea really has.

We're a giant and they're a spider. An ugly, hideous freak of nature, but there's no need to get worked up about it.

SF accountant - The larger problem lies with North Korea selling this tech to the highest bidder. Not necessarily the rocket, but the nuclear capabilities. We also need to make sure they remain a "spider" and not grow into a GIANT spider while we aren't looking. We definitely don't need NK's level of brainwashed citizens to spread any further. (I'd love to know just how brainwashed they are of course, whether destroying their leadership would free them or if they're so well controlled that they would actually weep for the loss of their "dear leader")

At worst in this situation, N Korea would destroy one US city. We would melt their whole country in retaliation and the world wouldn't blame us at all. They'd have to be completely suicidal imbeciles to even try it.

I agree with SF accountant. You watch the spider, don't touch it and don't freak out about it. If it decides to bother you, then *squash*

As for the "libtard" comments, STFU and grow up already. Who do you think is closer to the "tard" designation, college educated liberals or hayseed redneck Tea-billies?

Before you shriek about it, you started the name calling. Just like you guys always do.

Right, because the "he/she started it" argument always worked GREAT for me when I was 5 lol. If you're going to tell people to grow up, it helps to act grown up yourself.

Wow, @gene047 any other completely repugnant racial slurs you want to fling out there while you are at it?

Is the N Korean gvmt bat$hit insane? yes

Would the world be better off without North Korea's constant sabre rattling: yes

But that doesn't give you license to devolve the conversation into a Klan meeting by a: using a racist slur to demonize an entire race of people (two if you count that word's usage to the vietnamese) and b: contributing NOTHING to the conversation.

There are a number of reasons to scrutinize N Korea and its policies, but putting a rocket into space, even with limited success is extremely difficult. And truth be told your bottle rockets were probably made in Korea or China anyway, so be mindful of what you are saying before making an @$$ of yourself on the internet

I second Drumguy's response. It's very possible to be critical without being racist about it. I'm embarrassed for those using such ugly language and describing the North Korean leader in racist terms. Who gives a damn what race they are or what they look like? White terrorists can be just as ugly and stupid.

Lil' Kim III is trying to reach the moon..... looking for the unicorn lair!

Actually, it kind of is.

Do you actually know anything about rocket science?

What are you, twelve?

12-12-12...ironic ain't it....

I do believe President Obama has already taken care of that. Do you expect him to acknowledge that? I don't.

Hahaha what a joke

like i trust my own government...and the corporately controled media...der der der...mean while back in la la land...the sheeple have been fleeced again...who'd have thunk it...

Why do so many people think the government, especially on sensitive international matters, should advertise to the world every move it is making or considering making? Rather stupid when you think about it.

That would be a diplomatic blunder.

As of now, literally the entire world, including Russia and China, is more or less condemning the launch. That solidarity in isolating North Korea for its actions is more valuable than making sure the satellite - whatever it's supposed to do - is ruined.