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Last Updated: Thursday, 14 February 2008, 20:15 GMT
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US plans to shoot down satellite
Missile launched from USS Decatur during a Missile Defense Agency ballistic missile flight June 22, 2007.
The Pentagon is said to want to shoot the craft down from a ship
The US military is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite due to crash land on Earth in the next few weeks, the Pentagon has announced.

President George W Bush approved the option to fire a missile from a US Navy ship to destroy the satellite before it enters the atmosphere, officials said.

They say the satellite contains a hazardous material which could be fatal if inhaled by humans.

A US general denied claims that the main aim was to destroy secret parts.

General James Cartwright said confidential components would be burned up in the atmosphere and, in any case, that would not be a reason for shooting down the satellite.

He said the satellite, launched in December 2006, had lost power and communications shortly after it entered space and a controlled re-entry was not possible.

The broken satellite was expected to hit the top of the Earth's atmosphere by the end of February or early March.

The craft contains a high quantity of hydrazine rocket fuel in a tank that would survive re-entry.

Burning sensation

Gen Cartwright said that exposure to the hydrazine would have similar effects to inhaling chlorine or ammonia - a burning sensation in lungs and, if too close and too much, then possibly death.

If the hydrazine tank did burst, the danger zone would be an area covering the size of two football pitches.

He said they would have one missile shot, and then a two-day window to reassess if a second attempt was required.

The general added that the space shuttle would be back on Earth before the attempt was made.

Missile Hits Dying US Spy Satellite
Feb 20 11:51 PM US/Eastern
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer


Sea-to-Space Missile Shot Hits Satellite Target

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Navy missile soaring 130 miles above the Pacific smashed a dying and potentially deadly U.S. spy satellite Wednesday and probably destroyed a tank carrying 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel, officials said.

Officials had expressed cautious optimism that the missile would hit the satellite, which was the size of a school bus. But they were less certain of hitting the smaller, more problematic fuel tank, whose contents posed what Bush administration officials deemed a potential health hazard to humans if it landed intact.

In a statement announcing that the Navy missile struck the satellite, the Pentagon said, "Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours." It made no mention of early indications, but a defense official close to the situation said later that officials monitoring the collision saw what appeared to be an explosion, indicating that the fuel tank was hit.

The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles—not orbiting satellites—launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. EST, according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite about three minutes later as the spacecraft traveled in polar orbit at more than 17,000 mph.

Because the satellite was orbiting at a relatively low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.

"Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days," it said.

The use of the Navy missile amounted to an unprecedented use of components of the Pentagon's missile defense system, designed to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles in flight—not kill satellites.

The operation was so extraordinary, with such intense international publicity and political ramifications, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates—not a military commander—was to make the final decision to pull the trigger.

The government organized hazardous materials teams, under the code name "Burnt Frost," to be flown to the site of any dangerous or otherwise sensitive debris that might land in the United States or elsewhere.

Also, six federal response groups that are positioned across the country by the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been alerted but not activated, FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said. "These are purely precautionary and preparedness actions only," he said.