By Dennis O'Brien and Frank D. Roylance , Sun reporters|February 21, 2008
A missile launched from a Navy ship struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific Ocean yesterday, the Pentagon said.
A Defense Department official said an initial view of the missile strike on the spy satellite indicated that it probably hit the spacecraft's fuel tank, whose toxic contents were the main target of the missile launch, the Associated Press reported.
"Due to the relatively low altitude of the satellite at the time of the engagement, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere immediately," the Pentagon said in a news release last night. "Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24 to 48 hours, and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days."
The U.S. military has shot down missiles in flight before - 12 times while testing key parts of its $9 billion missile defense effort. It even destroyed an orbiting satellite in 1985.
But the Pentagon's plan to blast an errant spy satellite out of the heavens posed unique technological challenges. It could have been an embarrassment if its main mission failed - and an international liability even if it has succeeded, experts say.
The satellite, known as USA-193, was built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and failed shortly after launch in December 2006. In addition to its high-tech payload, it contains about 1,000 pounds of frozen hydrazine, a hazardous propellant stored in a metal tank.
The Pentagon said the tank and hydrazine would pose a hazard if they landed in a populated area, so officials planned to take out the satellite by blasting it with an Aegis missile launched from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific.
The missile was launched from the USS Lake Erie about 10:25 p.m. EST. The government had notified sailors and aviators to stay clear of parts of the Pacific beginning about 10:30 p.m. EST.
The guided missile was specifically part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, which has hit 12 out of 14 targets during flight tests, according to a Defense Department spokesman.
"It's one of the Defense Department's more successful anti-missile systems," said Dr. Jonathan C. McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
Some experts have compared the task of hitting the satellite to hitting a bullet with a bullet about 150 miles above Earth.
