CTV.ca News February 14, 2008
U.S. will use missile to shoot down spy satellite
It sounds like a plan out of a James Bond thriller. The U.S. has decided to use a missile to shoot down a disabled American spy satellite.
There's no word yet on when the shoot down attempt may come, but when it occurs, it will be an historical first. According to Gen. James Cartwright of the U.S. Joint chiefs of Staff, the missile will probably be launched from a Navy ship sometime before the satellite's expected descent to earth in early March.
"The shoot-down itself is not necessarily dangerous," Eric Hagt told CTV Newsnet.
Hagt, a director at the Washington, D.C., think tank the World Security Institute, said there are fears fuel and "debris from the break up of the satellite hitting earth would be dangerous for people on the ground."
Another goal for the satellite's destruction may also be to prevent the satellite's pieces from falling into the wrong hands.
"We are worried about something showing up on eBay,'' intelligence expert John Pike told the Associated Press.
"What they have to be worried about is that a souvenir collector is going to find some piece, put it on eBay and the Chinese buy it,'' said Pike, the director of the defence research group GlobalSecurity.org.
Confidential sources familiar with the situation have told reporters that there is a belief that if left alone, half of the falling satellite would remain in tact as it descended to earth.
Last year, China conducted an anti-satellite test by shooting one of its old weather satellites still in orbit. That left a lot of debris, which could continue to orbit earth for years to come. At the time, the U.S. condemned the Chinese action.
The spy satellite -- known as US 193 -- became uncontrollable soon after its December 2006 launch. Its central computer failed and it lost power.
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