Pentagon to shoot down broken spy satellite

AP ^ | 02-14-2008 | AP

[montag813]

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March.

This is the U.S. military will use a missile to destroy a satellite in space, NBC News reports.

The spy satellite has lost all power and is expected to crash back on earth in early March, spreading debris and potentially hazardous fuel over several hundred miles.

[montag813]

Modified SM-3 missiles will be used from a destroyer and cruiser in the Pacific.

[PlanoMike]

Should be a good test.

[saganite]

Didn’t we get all perturbed because the Chinese shot a sattelite in orbit and created a lot of space junk?

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Won’t this cause a debris cloud similar to the one the Chinese created, endangering the space station, etc.?

[L,TOWM]

Right out of a Tom Clancy novel.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

I guess the Chinese can say now their reasons for doing the same thing were just as valid.

[rhombus]

If the intercept is successful and the satellite blown to bits, it appears most of the debris will become orbitting "space junk" and not re-enter the earth's atmopshere.

Just more junk to keep track of now... it's getting pretty messy up there.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Cool. When?

[RightWhale]

They might chunk it, but a call to Beijing would result in the advise that blowing up a satellite doesn’t bring it down but results in thousands of smaller satellites.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Earlier article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22857051/

"...The U.S. military has no weapon designed to shoot down a satellite, but it demonstrated the ability to do that in the mid-1980s, and could cobble together a plan to do so again fairly quickly, said the senior defense official.

Such a move appears unlikely, given global dismay about China’s use of a missile to destroy a much bigger satellite at a higher orbit, which scattered nearly 1,000 pieces of debris throughout space, the official said..."

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Near-Earth orbit spy satellite. Debris should enter atmosphere and burn up shortly after destruction. Space Center is further out in space.

OTOH, I’d scream with laughter if they “accidently” took out an communist spy-sat.

Memo to Putin: Ooops, my bad
Signed: Dubya

[Living Free in NH]

Didn’t we get all perturbed because the Chinese shot a sattelite in orbit and created a lot of space junk?

Yeah, but come on, they're Chinese...

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

But the space shuttle still has to fly through that altitude range.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

“I guess the Chinese can say now their reasons for doing the same thing were just as valid.”

As if they care about “valid” reasons for anything they do....

[rellimpank]

---spreading debris and potentially hazardous fuel over several hundred miles.--

--I can't believe the fuel was going to survive re-entry or that it was going to be that hazardous--so now we are going to spread junk over multiples of millions of cubic miles of space just as the Chinese did??

[Charles Martel]

Modified SM-3 missiles will be used from a destroyer and cruiser in the Pacific.

Wow, looks like I actually guessed correctly at the likely weapons system.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

there must be some other reason for doing this - maybe the Russians have the capability to grab it.

[MeanWestTexan]

different orbit, no?

And that said, who cares?

[theDentist]

I think this is also a “heads up” to China, Russia, NK and Iran as well.

[dangerdoc]

“there must be some other reason for doing this - maybe the Russians have the capability to grab it.”

Or the debri field will cross paths with a few chinese or ruski satellites on the way down.