How North Korean Satellites Threaten the World

Above our heads right now is a North Korean satellite “tumbling in orbit.” Even though it doesn’t house a nuclear payload, it poses a major threat. It isn’t about to fall on somebody’s house or car. It’s much worse than that. The dangers are, firstly, that it is careening through space, and secondly, that it is the next step in North Korea’s aggressive nuclear policy.

Threatening Space

Kwangmyongsong 4 (translated Shining Star 4), the satellite launched on February 7, is currently traveling about 300 miles above the Earth on a roughly north-south orbit, according to cbs. If it were alone in the vastness of space, there wouldn’t be a problem. But it is not alone.

North Korea’s new satellite flew over Super Bowl site

North Koreans gather at the Kim Il Sung Square to celebrate a satellite launch on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. People in Pyongyang danced and watched fireworks the day after a rocket launch that has been strongly condemned by many countries around the world. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

 

TOKYO (AP) — Here’s a bit of Super Bowl trivia: North Korea’s newest satellite passed almost right over the stadium just an hour after it ended.

Whatever motives Pyongyang may have about using its rocket launches to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, it now has two satellites circling the Earth, according to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Command, which monitors all satellites in orbit.

Both of the Kwangmyongsong, or “Shining Star,” satellites complete their orbits in about 94 minutes and based on data released by international organizations tracking them, the new one passed almost right over Levi’s Stadium about an hour after the Super Bowl ended.