The Pentagon has successfully struck the disabled spy satellite with a missile fired from a warship sitting west of Hawaii. The military had just a 10-second window to hit the satellite and it executed well.
The radar imaging reconnaissance satellite
USA 193 failed to function as soon after its launch in December 2006. As it was stumbling down to Earth, it posed a safety hazard. The satellite, the size of a regular bus, carried a toxic hydrazine fuel in its fuel tank.
Earlier, the military said it will be using an
SM-3 missile and fire it from the military cruiser USS Lake Erie, which is posted in Hawaii along with other destroyers USS Decatur and USS Russell.
The diagram below shows how the SM-3 missile will be fired at the descending satellite and how the debris will be distribute once it is hit.
Though the satellite
was hit, the Pentagon hasn’t announced whether they were able to successfully pierce the satellite’s fuel tank, which contains about 450 kg (1,000 lbs) of toxic hydrazine.
This controversial operation has been criticized by both China and Russia. China had said it is
double standard that the U.S. complained about their earlier anti-satellite test and now the U.S. is doing the same. Russia complained this is actually a cover-up for anti-satellite technology under the U.S. missile defense program. Russia said other satellites had fallen before and it didn’t require such an extraordinary measure.
The Pentagon has denied it is anti-satellite test; this is just to protect the people from the hazardous fuel.
US officials said without an attempt to destroy the fuel tank, and with the satellite's thermal control system gone, the fuel would now be frozen solid, allowing the tank to resist the heat of re-entry. If the tank were to land intact, it could leak toxic gas over a wide area - harming or killing humans if inhaled, officials had warned.
There was also a rumor that U.S. Military wanted to destroy the satellite before it falls into foreign hands, but Pentagon said that is not the case. Most of the parts will burn in the atmosphere.
The missile was sent just after the successful landing of the space shuttle Atlantis, so that it won’t harm the shuttle.
Professor Richard Crowther, a space debris expert with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), said that if the satellite is struck with the missile, about 25 per cent of USA 193 is likely to survive the fall to Earth.
He told BBC News.
The smaller the debris is the more likely you are to get burn-through. So if you fragment something before re-entry, less mass will survive to hit the Earth.
It is great news the Pentagon was able to hit the satellite successfully and let's hope the remaining debris won't hurt the people in the ground.
Do you think the military is using this hazard pretext to successfully test their rocket missiles, as Russia claims?
