Oberg finds that no part of the Russian theory fits
Russia has been making ominous noises about how the US may have accidentally or deliberately fried its Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars with a radar beam, ostensibly used to track asteroids, from the US Pacific launch site of Kwajalein. Veteran space reporter James Oberg find that, besides the official US denials, the theory is not physically possible. The radar at Kwaj is not suitable for asteroid studies and was not turned on. The Phobos Grunt mission was well over the horizon at teh "suspicious" point. And the the tracking of Russia's probe, which kept raising its orbit when not commanded to do so, indicates an on-board control failure early in the flight had it constantly doing useless thruster burns under the fuel was exhausted.
Darn, I was hoping for something cool, like UFOs... oh well, that's all over the internet anyway.
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