On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:57:00 GMT, Fred J. McCall
wrote:

Chris Jones wrote:

:"Jim Oberg" writes:
:
: China Hits Its Target . . . And it's on West 43rd Street.
: by James Oberg // Weekly Standard // 1/27/2007, Volume 012, Issue 20
:
: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Check....=13219&r=eztbj
:
:[...]
:
: Not that the Times fully comprehended what China had done. The editorial
: claimed it had destroyed a retired "communications satellite." But the
: explosion in space destroyed something else, too.
:
:This may be nit-picking, but was it "an explosion in space"? It was a
:kinetic kill, more like being hit by a rock than a bomb. It certainly
:completely destroyed the target, whatever it's called.

Energy on target is energy on target. Calculate the kinetic energy of
the impact. Convert to kilograms of the explosive of your choice.

Explosion is the right word.

nods And more importantly it did its job. i.e. taking out he
target.