WASHINGTON — A missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean hit an out-of-control spy satellite hurtling toward Earth Wednesday night, Pentagon officials said.
The officials said Wednesday night that a single SM-3 missile fired from the USS Lake Erie hit the satellite at 8:26 p.m. MST. The missile struck the dead satellite about 150 miles above Earth as it traveled in orbit at more than 17,000 mph.
Military officials hoped to rupture the satellite’s fuel tank to prevent 1,000 pounds of hydrazine from crashing to Earth. It was unclear Wednesday night whether the missile hit was able to break up the tank, but Pentagon officials hoped to be able to confirm the results within 24 hours. They said they were certain that the satellite was hit, but they will need the added time to determine whether the fuel tank was ruptured.
A defense official said Wednesday night that the military believes it got a “pretty solid” direct hit on the satellite.
“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 statement. “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.”
Before Wednesday night’s intercept, some experts had expressed doubts about the seriousness of the risk and questioned whether the shot was an excuse for an anti-satellite test that many people around the world found controversial. Skeptics in the arms-control community have speculated that the administration chose to undertake the shootdown partly so it can test potential anti-satellite weapons and missile-defense technology.
Pentagon officials said earlier that shooting the satellite down was a daunting challenge, with the actual window of opportunity for a successful shot open for only about 30 seconds.
The initial decision to shoot down the satellite was made by President Bush at the urging of his national-security team, which said that the rocket fuel posed a very small but real risk to people on Earth. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is traveling abroad, made the final decision about when to shoot.
In steps taken in coordination with the Defense Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a “health advisory” Wednesday that warns that those who breathe the rocket fuel can suffer convulsions, tremors or seizures. The administration also mobilized what it called six “joint interagency task forces” nationwide to reach the site of any debris.
Scientists, arms-control advocates and others said the shootdown was based on questionable modeling by the government of the risks to human health and a danger to the future peaceful use of space. Some worried that the U.S. decision to adapt a rocket designed for missile defense to serve as an anti-satellite weapon would encourage other nations to experiment with their own anti-satellite technology.
Most information about the spy satellite is classified, but space experts believe it was launched in December 2006 and that it malfunctioned soon after reaching low-Earth orbit.It included the most advanced radar-imaging technology, said defense analyst John Pike of .
