/r/conspiracy - When reality isn't interesting enough, just make something up.

Unless the US has some super secret "star wars" Reagan device, this doesn't really add up, the rocket exploded 90 seconds after launch.

N.Korea would love the propoganda of having their attempts a progress destroyed by the west but nothing adds up to make that claim credible, even by their standards

We have lasers on our naval ships capable of destroying icbms in a few seconds. Fact not fiction. Not widely used but where better than north Korea

Actually doing it 90 seconds after launch is FAR more likely to have been sabotage than when it was in flight. If a team with the right tools targeted the missile from the ground, from WITHIN North Korea had the right tools, 90 seconds is just about the right timeframe. MUCH easier when it's going straight up than targeting it when it's beginning to curve into its trajectory.

It's a perfect storm for the US. They get to test out new missile destroying tech, with plausible deniability (because after all, the North Koreans must be incompetent, right? Come on. They developed Nuclear power and weapons. That requires a certain level of sophistication WELL above "rocket science" (which isn't actually that hard).), and the added bonus that they destroy the rocket, and leave the North Koreans scratching their heads about how they got their maths wrong.

I personally believe there's a 65% chance this rocket was sabotaged, and I personally am 100% happy with that. It's a success, from the point of view of the non insane countries of the world, as far as I'm concerned.

Also : the rocket was heading straight for Australia, which I happen to live in - so there's that too.. :P

EDIT:

N.Korea would love the propoganda of having their attempts a progress destroyed by the west but nothing adds up to make that claim credible, even by their standards

Do you honestly think that they would admit to having been compromised? They would never do this. As I said before, this is why this is a perfect op by the west's point of view. They would 100% know they'd get away with it, since the North Koreans would never admit to being defeated. Bad propaganda.

I would argue it's much more likely that a failing state messed up on a rocket launch.

Rocket tests still fail, and given that NK doesn't even get much help from China with regards to technology it wouldn't surprise me if their engineers have to wing it with regards to a lot of their designs. Keep in mind that the best that NK has to go on are old scud missiles.

I personally believe there's a 65% chance this rocket was sabotaged

I doubt that, it would require a lot of things to go right, it would be pretty difficult to get a team to an area that close to the Chinese border without being detected at all (keep in mind the Chinese have some pretty amazing technology, like making their subs virtually undetectable).

Not to mention their last major rocket test failed in the third stage. Your requirements for sabotage are just far too unlikely.

Also : the rocket was heading straight for Australia, which I happen to live in - so there's that too.. :P

As do I, hello from Perth. I doubt that there would have been any issue if the rocket had crashed/released anything over Australia as we're basically desert, more desert and dropbears.

Unless it hit Adelaide, but even then I doubt we'd really miss those giant silver balls.

All is forgiven and full upvotes for making fun of Adelaide.

;)

The supreme commander disapproves of this comment

Of course it "adds up". The U.S. have had extremely capable missile defense systems for decades and they've only improved with the development of high-intensity lasers. And if the gaff was to make it appear to have failed as the result of North Korean technological incompetence, then it was wise to let the missile get out over the ocean so the falling debris couldn't endanger innocent civilians. And for all the U.S. knew, the rocket could have been a live nuclear warhead.

Lasers cannot focus any significant amount of energy, much less enough sufficient to destroy an entire rocket, over that range. Furthermore, radiation signatures clearly showed there was no nuclear warhead. Stop believing things because you want them to be true and listen to reason.

Of course there was no nuclear warhead, but the U.S. had to respond as if it were the real thing.

And don't pretend to know the limitations or capabilities of of current laser technology.

And don't pretend to know the limitations or capabilities of of current laser technology.

The same to you.

Lasers

Fox News: Navy Shows Off Powerful New Laser Weapon.

Navy: ONR - Supported Free Electron Laser Most Powerful Tunable Laser in World.

Navy: Testing Moves Navy Closer to Lasers for Ship Self-Defense.

Railguns

Navy: Navy Sets New World Record with Electromagnetic Railgun Demonstration.

YouTube: Navy tests railgun.

I had a similar thought as you and 789 but odds are NK just can't get it done.

And yet, they managed to master nuclear fission, and weaponizing it? Come on. They are not as backwards as people would like to believe. "Rocket Science" is actually fucking easy, next to splitting an atom, and putting that technology into a warhead.

How easy would it be to propagate how "bad" it is in North Korea? They can build skyscrapers, is it that hard to believe they couldn't build a rocket?

I have never been but they actually have a hard time with building sky scrapers as well. I don't remember the name of the failed hotel but they have a big eye sore in the capitol they couldn't finish for a decade or longer. Also keep in mind many countries farm this stuff out. My buds that came back from Iraq said anything over 10 feet tall had a plaque showing it was built either by a French or Russian contractor. Most, if not all of Iraq's weapons were US or Foreign built.

I have seen a NK car and its quality would lead me to believe they have a hard time wiping their own asses.

Oh not that its proof but look up on youtube the vice guide to NK. They have two. The older one is a tour through NK the newer one focuses on NK labor camps in Russia.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the rocket worked perfectly and the US is just saying it blew up.

Has anyone seen the rocket explode?

I assume since the world powers were watching, that they recorded its movement.

How about we settle this bet and wait for the proof to come out.

However, I see three possibilities:

• There never was a rocket. I still don't buy that footage of NK and the rocket they've been showing here. It really looks fake. Like a bunch of metal welded together with a coat of paint on top.
• The rocket took off and broke apart or someone shot it down. Haven't seen any credible proof aside from what news outlets said.
• The rocket made it into orbit, and we lied about it going down.

I just woke up so I may have missed overnight coverage and updates to the story, but I'm not buying anything from the press anymore. Some of you are right. Rocket science isn't that difficult anymore.

There wasn't a chance in hell of it REACHING orbit. I'm surprised it didn't blow up during ignition. To be fair, the US and Russia had lots of failures during the space race.

That goes along with /r/gamings theory of involvement by Solid Snake.

How do you shoot down a rocket without anyone seeing you shoot down the rocket? I'm sure North Korea had super high def cameras with super high zoom lenses on it watching the whole thing. Had it been shot down I would think there would be evidence for it. Further, I suspect that if North Kora had this evidence then they would release it as it would create support for them in the region, particularly from China.

North Korea may infact say we shot it down, but it's just propaganda if they don't support their claim with any sort of evidence.

Probably, might have, could have, but probably didn't. What evidence do I have? None, just like this post.

There would be no point to down the missile because I imagine the odds were it wouldn't last. The sophistication for a device, even a simple one, is huge. Everything from air friction against the hull, alignment of the navigation system, availability of goods, training of the ground crew, etc... are very tough challenges for a small, cut off and miserable nation to conquer. NK engineers are at the cutting edge of this tech, the US is cutting edge for other technologies and problems happen for both.

I don't think this is the West pushing around North Korea, just North Korea trying to stay relevant even as it's very existence is increasingly pointless. It needs food and supplies, it needs its leader to be seen as a legit world diplomat, it needs to seem scary as it fortunately sits at the center of the Asian giants (China, RoK, Japan). It's a mad dream with teeth I'd imagine the top NK echelon agree is untenable much longer.

As I understood the article I read, the lower booster stage failed to separate when it was empty. This meant that the rocket was never going to achieve orbit. Maybe it caused the breakup of the rocket as well, I don't know. If it was a failure of the booster to separate, there is no need to look for more esoteric explanations.

I searched the thread and couldn't find it but it's largely suspected that the Russian Phobos Grunt rocket was inadvertently taken down by US interference in the telemetry system. If that is true, that very same system could take down the North Korean rocket.

Yup, i was thinkin the same

...without any evidence at all to substantiate that thought. Maybe aliens destroyed the rocket. Or Jews.

Yep. It definitely has to be the LizardJewZionistKluKluxKlanNaziIlluminati who destroyed it!