Looks like they've done it.
Navy missile hits failing spy satellite
The first shot, fired at about 7:30 p.m., strikes its target. But officials say they don't know yet whether the fuel tank was destroyed.
By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:00 PM PST, February 20, 2008
HONOLULU -- Firing a three-stage missile from a Navy cruiser off the coast of Hawaii, the U.S. military hit a failed intelligence satellite speeding 133 miles above the Earth on the first try tonight, a shot the Pentagon hopes destroyed the spacecraft's fuel tank filled with 1,000 pounds of potentially toxic gas.
The missile, shot from the cruiser Lake Erie, came just as the window for the operation opened, at about 7:30 p.m. Pacific.
The Pentagon waited until the space shuttle Atlantis landed this morning to begin the operation. Planners determined the best time to attempt the shot was late afternoon local time, when the cold, tumbling satellite would have maximum exposure to the sun, warming it up enough for the heat-seeking "kill vehicle" atop the missile to find it.
Pentagon officials were not immediately able to say whether the fuel tank of the spy satellite had been destroyed, but officials have said that any hit would reduce the risk of danger to humans. In a statement, the Pentagon said it would be able to tell within 24 hours whether the fuel tank was ruptured.
The 5,000-pound satellite is so big that only half of it was expected to burn up on reentry. By shattering it with the missile, the spacecraft is likely to break up into smaller pieces that will be destroyed before entering the Earth's atmosphere.
In a sign of how important the military viewed the shoot-down, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates gave the final approval to fire the Standard Missile-3. According to Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, Gates gave the go-ahead during a conference call with commanders aboard his airplane while it was traveling over the Pacific en route to Hawaii.
Although weather reports earlier in the day had warned of choppy seas, the waters had calmed by the afternoon, and "the secretary was told conditions were ripe for an attempt," Morrell said.
Gates landed in Hawaii on an overnight stop here ahead of a weeklong trip to Asia less than two hours before the missile was fired, and was informed of the successful hit just minutes after it occurred.
Some experts with knowledge of military satellite programs have expressed skepticism about the danger posed by the spacecraft and its hydrazine jet fuel, arguing that the Pentagon was seeking to prove its ability to strike down a satellite just a year after China shot down one of its own aging weather satellites.
Military officials have denied any ulterior motive, and Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, told reporters here that in multiple conversations with nations in the region, he had been told of no objections to the test.
According to the Pentagon statement, the Lake Erie fired the missile at 7:26 p.m. Pacific and hit the satellite as it was speeding more than 17,000 miles per hour. Nearly all of the debris is expected to burn up within 48 hours, with the rest reentering the Earth's atmosphere within 40 days.