Navy Hits Target

The U.S. Navy couldn’t have done a better job even if that spy satellite plummeting from its standard orbit to Earth would of had a bullseye painted on it.

Wednesday night at approximately 10:30PM ET from a U.S. Naval vessel in the north Pacific, trained Navy seamen shot down the wayward satellite hitting it square on target right on its dangerous fuel tank. The missle used was a SM-3 fired from the deck of the USS Lake Erie.

Officials say the missile likely destroyed its intended target, a 1,000 pound tank of toxic hydrazine fuel.

“There are good first indications the shot was successful. There was an explosion on impact and over 80 pieces of debris were detected after initial assessments,” an official said.

It’s a sure sign that the targeted fuel tank was hit because there was an explosion and the missle used did not contain an explosive device. but was an impact weapon. (Video: HERE)

You have got to give the U.S. military credit when it comes to its modern day technological wizardry. The spy satellite, about the size of a standard size school bus, was located 130 miles away in space with a decaying, radical orbit, traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. To hit the fuel tank on an object that far away in space traveling at that speed and trajectory is just short of phenonomenal.

A statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense said the debris caused by the missle’s impact on the satellite will begin to enter the Earth’s atmosphere almost immediately and “nearly all of the debris will burn up on reentry within 24 to 48 hours”. The Navy is also confident that any remaining debris “should re-enter within 40 days,” and most of the surviving pieces will likely fall into the ocean.

Offically, the greatest concern over the faulty spy satellite was the toxic chemicals in its fuel tank. Scientists made claim that most of the satellite, if left unchecked, would not burn up in the atmosphere in re-entry and would probably fall somewhere in a populated area in North America, prompting President Bush to order the shoot down. However, it became obvious to those familiar with the spy game that there was something on the satellite’s hard drive that the U.S. government couldn’t chance letting fall into unauthorized hands so its only option was to destroy it while still in its failing orbit.

General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be giving a press conference on Friday at 7AM ET to give out furture details on the success of the mission and what is expected from any debris that doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, China said this morning (Thursday) it has put its entire population across the country on the alert for possible harmful fallout from the falling spy satellite debris and urged President Bush to promptly release data about the action. The comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry came several hours after the Pentagon said a missile launched from a Navy cruiser.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China was “continuously following closely the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries.”

The Chinese government has requested that the U.S. fulfill its international obligations in real earnest and have the Joint Chiefs provide the international community all necessary information and relevant data in a timely and prompt way so that countries that could be targets for the debris could take the necessary precautions.