The Pentagon said yesterday that it will try to shoot down a malfunctioning satellite before it has a chance to return to Earth and spread hazardous materials over populated areas.
The Defense Department will attempt to blast the U.S.-made satellite with a missile launched from a Navy ship in coming weeks before the satellite re-enters Earth's atmosphere, officials said.
The high-altitude strike ordered by President Bush would represent the first time the United States has taken such a step to deactivate a wayward orbital device. China performed a similar mission last year, which the United States criticized.
FOR THE RECORD - Some editions of yesterday's Sun gave an incorrect altitude at which the Pentagon hopes to intercept and destroy a failing satellite with a missile. The plan calls for hitting the satellite when it is 150 miles above the earth.
The Sun regrets the error.
Experts say the plan may be the best of several bad options, and noted that it would almost certainly leave more litter in space that could ultimately damage working satellites and space capsules.
"This is all about trying to reduce the danger to human beings," Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.
But some experts questioned the need for the blast - and the United States' motives.
"It's consistent with the administration's political interests in responding to the Chinese anti-satellite demonstration and taking an aggressive posture militarily," said Dr. Jonathan C. McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "This is really about an excuse to test their existing anti-missile system in a satellite-killing mode."
The satellite, known as USA-193, was built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and conked out shortly after launch in December 2006. It contains about 1,000 pounds of frozen hydrazine, a hazardous propellant stored in metal tanks, and government officials and experts say the tanks could survive re-entry into the atmosphere.
When China blasted one of its orbiting weather satellites out of the heavens Jan. 11, 2007, it prompted criticism and created an estimated 800 debris fragments - many of which have to be continually tracked.
Yesterday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the "window of opportunity" for the American shoot down will open in the next three or four days and last for seven or eight days. He did not say whether the Pentagon has decided on an exact launch date.
"This is the first time we've used a tactical missile to engage a spacecraft," Cartwright said, but he would not say what the odds of success are.
