Pentagon deems satellite-missile mission a success

You probabably remember last months little, eh, “episode” with the dead spy satellite that was headed for earth ? If you don’t allow us to refresh your memory. . .

Basically you’re looking at one of those fresh out of a Hollywood movie type stories. Big satellite heading towards earth. It was Amercian but they told everyone not to worry. It would burn up on reentry and if it didn’t, what are the chances that it would hit land anyway ?

Well, when they found out it the chances of it hitting North America were pretty high, the Americans really started to worry. Bush ordered (much to the delight of our News Editor) that the satellite be shot down with a missile.

Then the US military let us in on another little secret ; if the satellite hit land there might be more to worry about than schrapnel. . .

The fuel tank (and it was pretty close to full given the fact that the satellite failed so quickly after it was launched) contained a highly toxic type of rocket fuel. Hydrazine is actually quite dangerous and can cause harm to anyone who comes into contact with it. Officials said there was about 500kg (1000 pounds) of it on the satellite.

Given the toxicity of the fuel (similar to ammonia and smoking, it aint to kind on the lungs) the plan was to aim a missile at the fuel tank. Experts said the fuel tank could more than likely survive re-entry and there’d be more than a bit of a problem if it did so it clearly wouldn’t do to just hit the satellite.

In the wee small hours of the 21st of February the satellite was shot down and the military was “confident” that it had hit the fuel tank.

Today the pentagon announced that it was sure the mission had been a success. Adding that there are now only very small pieces left “up there” and that they would burn up on re-entry.

"We thought there would be much larger pieces," Rear Admiral Alan Hicks (who heads the Pentagon’s Aegis ballistic missile defense program) told Reuters.

Hicks cited the force of the between the satellite and the SM-3 collision at about 22,000 miles per hour (35,000 km per hour).

Love a good explosion in the morning.