Target practice? No way. They want ALL the technology in that bird in pieces that could benefit no enemy of the USA. Would not surprise me to catch Bill and Hillary out there with a giant net on the water —— heck, those pieces could fetch a big bunch of campaign dollars in Commie China —— where is Johnny Chung when they need him?
I would be shocked if reentry and impact did not completely destroy anything of worth. I don't think surveillance satellites are hardened against reentry. So I think the hydrazine is a blind too. How can a fuel tank survive reentry when it's not designed for that?
Pure speculation; but if there were nuclear materials on board, they would survive reentry and would be detected by the folks in the neighborhood where it landed.
Otherwise, this is just an opportunity to test ASAT capabilities against LEO satellites. And we're taking it.
A couple days ago someone in this program mentioned the reverse engineering issues if intact pieces landed where they shouldn’t. The idiot infobabe — on MSNBC, I think — was shocked and asked, “You mean other countries could find parts of it and copy them for themselves!?!” (not verbatim, but close) Well DUH!
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They probably have a number of deep water recovery ships in the area just in case....
Really, what they need to say is yes, we are testing technolog; good to be prepared in the event of large incoming asteroids.....
I got the ugly picture loud and clear.