[DEBATE] : US missile hits rogue spy satellite

[Riaz K Tayob]

US missile hits rogue spy satellite

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0AA0F867-53B6-4670-81C7-BF4B4BAFDFF2.htm

The SM-3 missile was fired from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean 
[GALLO/GETTY]
A missile fired from a US navy warship in the Pacific has hit a spy 
satellite in an effort to prevent its toxic fuel tank from crashing to 
Earth, a Pentagon source has said.

Thursday's mission to disable the out-of-control satellite has been 
criticised by both the Chinese and Russian governments who argue the 
move could harm space security.

The Pentagon said that after delays due to bad weather: "The missile's 
been launched and [it was] a successful intercept."

The US president had ordered the satellite shot down because, if it 
entered Earth's atmosphere, the 450kg of toxic hydrazine fuel aboard 
could have posed a health hazard.

Space warfare

However, the mission has not gone without criticism, or speculation that 
the real purpose is to test missile capabilities.

The Chinese Communist party newspaper wrote: "The United States, the 
world's top space power, has often accused other countries of vigorously 
developing military space technology.

"But faced with the Chinese-Russian proposal to restrict space 
armaments, it runs in fear from what it claimed to love."

Last year, China was also criticised by the US and several of its allies 
which accused Beijing of risking a space arms race after it used a 
ballistic missile to destroy one of its own obsolete weather satellites.

Russia's defence ministry also said it feared the US plan was a veiled 
test of US anti-satellite capabilities and represented an "attempt to 
move the arms race into space".

The ministry said: "The decision to destroy the American satellite does 
not look harmless as they try to claim, especially at a time when the US 
has been evading negotiations on the limitation of an arms race in outer 
space."

Toxic target

Rogue satellite

Satellite code name USA-193 launched in December 2006 on a Delta II 
rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California



Top secret military reconnaissance mission - otherwise known as a spy 
satellite



Controllers lost contact with satellite hours after it entered orbit



Carrying approximately 450kg of toxic hydrazine rocket fuel



Satellite itself weighs about two tonnes and is about the size of a bus

The SM-3 missile was fired from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean 
at about 10:26 EST (0326 GMT Thursday), the Pentagon said.



There was no immediate word on whether the toxic fuel tank, had been 
shattered as officials had hoped.

But the Pentagon statement said that confirmation the fuel tank had been 
fragmented should be available within 24 hours.

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



Left alone, about half of the spacecraft was expected to survive its 
blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over 
several hundred miles.

Highly classified



Critics have said the justification of health fears may be a cover for 
preventing highly classified spy satellite technology from falling into 
foreign hands.

Jing-Dong Yuan, from the non-proliferation programme at the James Martin 
Centre, told Al Jazeera that the toxic-spread argument is "not very 
credible according to scientists and other analysts".



"The chances of a spy satellite hitting a populated area are only very 
small. We know that only 30 per cent of the earth is populated, so the 
vast majority would be the ocean," he said.

Robert Massey, a scientist in London, told Al Jazeera that the US may 
want to shoot down the spy satellite because "if it landed in the wrong 
place ... some of their less favourable allies might decide to examine 
the contents".

Jing-Dong said: "Another reason is that the US has used this opportunity 
to test its own missile defence capabilities or anti-satellite 
capabilities."



The missile carries a non-explosive "kinetic kill vehicle" – designed 
essentially to destroy the satellite by smashing into it.



The technique is similar to the system employed in US anti-missile shields.



Initial delay

The project was initially delayed after weather forecasts on Wednesday 
in the Pacific, where the US warship was stationed for the mission, 
indicated that seas would not be calm enough for the ship to fire a missile.



But the Pentagon had to act before February 29, when the dead satellite, 
about 247km above the Pacific Ocean, was projected to re-enter the 
Earth's atmosphere.



On Wednesday, the space shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida, clearing the 
way for the military operation to proceed.



The Pentagon had been waiting for the shuttle to land to avoid contact 
with flying debris as the satellite returned to Earth.



Atlantis returned after completing a mission to deliver Europe's first 
permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies