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The United States and China both used advanced missiles to blow up their own satellites in a mutual show of military strength, documents published in Thursday's Telegraph newspaper showed. The memos, leaked by the WikiLeaks website, revealed that the US responded to China's 2007 destruction of a weather satellite by blowing up its own malfunctioning satellite in a "test" strike. The US insisted at the time that it undertook the operation to prevent the satellite returning to earth with a toxic fuel tank which would pose a health hazard. A leaked cable sent from the US embassy in Beijing in...

As space becomes more important to military operations, the flimsiness of the laws and conventions that govern space operations is more apparent. It’s not so much that the structure has become weaker as that technological and industrial developments have exposed its failings. Recent years have seen a satellite shoot-down demonstration by China in January 2007, followed a year later by the U.S. shoot-down of the malfunctioning USA 193 spacecraft. There have also been reported incidents of deliberate non-kinetic interference with U.S. spacecraft. Analyst Dean Cheng of the Heritage Foundation, speaking at a symposium on deterrence in Omaha, Neb., noted that...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2008 – The missile fired from a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific Ocean that hit a malfunctioning U.S. reconnaissance satellite late yesterday likely accomplished its goal of destroying the satellite’s toxic fuel tank, a senior U.S. military officer said here today. Preliminary reports indicate the SM-3 missile struck its primary target, which was a tank full of toxic hydrazine rocket fuel carried aboard the 5,000-pound satellite, Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. “The intercept occurred. … We’re very confident that we hit...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy gunners in the Pacific were watching the sea and sky Wednesday, waiting for perfect conditions to take a kill shot on an errant satellite 150 miles above them. hey have just a 10-second window to fire, a Pentagon official said, and may not be able to take their shot on their first opportunity at 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. "It's not enough to say 'no,' but we're watching the weather," the official told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's on the margin." The cruiser USS Lake Erie will get one 10-second window each of the next nine or...

An attempt to blast a crippled U.S. spy satellite out of the sky using a Navy heat-seeking missile — possibly on Wednesday night — would be the first real-world use of this piece of the Pentagon's missile defense network. But that is not the mission for which it was intended. The attempted shootdown, already approved by President Bush, is seen by some as blurring the lines between defending against a weapon like a long-range missile and targeting satellites in orbit. The three-stage Navy missile, designated the SM-3, has chalked up a high rate of success in a series of tests...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

Excerpt - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are unable to communicate with an expensive experimental U.S. spy satellite launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a defense official and another source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Efforts are continuing to reestablish communication with the classified satellite, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but "the prognosis is not great at this point," said the defense official, who asked not to be identified. ~ snip ~

U.S. officials are studying the possibility of shooting down the errant Lockheed Martin intelligence satellite that was launched into space for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The concern is that the spacecraft carries a full tank of hydrazine - a toxic propellant - that would have been used to reposition the satellite in orbit. Government analysts say the odds are that the tank will crack open during re-entry or than it will land in the ocean, which makes up 70% of the area where the breaking up satellite might land. There also is concern in some quarters that debris could...