You're right. I'm assuming someone would fall on their sword to show what a POS it was and how it's failing. But that doesn't happen until AFTER they retire.
If you wanted to stop one of these the trick would be to hit it early enough (way out in space), just to nudge it a bit so it doesn't hit Earth.. or at least doesn't hit 'Merica. Once it's in the atmosphere that thing has so much kinetic energy that there's no way that "science" is going to be able to do anything.
Enjoy! I'm definitely fairly read-in on survivalist stuff believe it or not.
Born there, lots of family still there, love to ski, makes for a winning combination. Mormons are generally very nice even if their religion isn't for me.