U.S. Keeps Close Eye On Satellite Debris

Pentagon: Debris From Destroyed Satellite Being Monitored, Unlikely To Cause Harm On Earth

(CBS/AP)  Debris from an obliterated U.S. spy satellite is being tracked over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans but appears to be too small to cause damage on Earth, a senior military officer said Thursday, just hours after a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the failing spacecraft.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an expert on military space technologies, told a Pentagon news conference that officials have a "high degree of confidence" that the missile launched from a Navy cruiser Wednesday night hit exactly where intended.

It was an unprecedented mission for the Navy, so extraordinary that the final go-ahead to launch the missile Wednesday was reserved for Defense Secretary Robert Gates rather than a military commander.

Cartwright estimated there was an 80 percent to 90 percent chance that the missile struck the most important target on the satellite - its fuel tank, containing 1,000 pounds of hydrazine, which Pentagon officials say could have posed a health hazard to humans if it had landed in a populated area.

Alluding to a video clip of the missile smashing into the satellite, which he showed at the news conference, Cartwright said, "We have a fireball, and given that there's no fuel (on the tip of the missile), that would indicate that that's a hydrazine fire."

The video showed the three-stage SM-3 missile launching from the USS Lake Erie at 10:26 p.m. EST, northwest of Hawaii, and of the missile's small "kill vehicle" - a non-explosive device at the tip - maneuvering into the path of the satellite and colliding spectacularly.

He said the satellite and the kill vehicle collided at a combined speed of 22,000 mph about 130 miles above Earth's surface, and that the collision was confirmed at a space operations center at 10:50 p.m. EST.

Asked about the satisfaction felt among those in the military who had organized the shootdown on short notice by modifying missile software and other components, Cartwright smiled widely.

"Yes, this was uncharted territory. The technical degree of difficulty was significant here," Cartwright said. "You can imagine that at the point of intercept there were a few cheers that went up."

He cautioned, however, that more technical analysis was required to determine for certain what debris was created and where it might go. The satellite was described as the size of a school bus and weighed about 5,000 pounds.

Unlike most spacecraft that fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere, this satellite had an almost full fuel tank because it lost power and became uncontrollable shortly after it reached its initial orbit in December 2006. Cartwright said the hydrazine alone was justification for undertaking the unprecedented effort to use a Navy missile interceptor to attempt to destroy the satellite in orbit.

Cartwright said experts were still watching the debris fields and he could not yet rule out that hazardous material would fall to Earth. But he said that as of Thursday morning, debris had only been seen in the atmosphere - and none had been detected surviving re-entry. He indicated that debris appeared unlikely to pose a problem.

"Thus far we've seen nothing larger than a football," he said, referring to debris in the atmosphere spotted by radars and other sensors.

The military concluded that the missile had successfully shattered the satellite because trackers detected a fireball. Cartwright said it was unlikely that the fireball could have been caused by anything other than the hydrazine in the tank.

And Cartwright cited two other sources of information that indicate the fuel tank was hit: the appearance of a vapor cloud and the results of spectral analysis, or the study of light emissions, from devices aboard two aircraft that operate from the Pacific test range associated with the Pentagon's missile defense testing.

Debris from the satellite has started re-entry and will continue through Thursday and into Friday, Cartwright said.

The size of the debris is smaller than the Pentagon had forecast and most of the satellite's intelligence value was likely destroyed, Cartwright said. Analysts had said one of the reasons for the shootdown was that officials worried that without it, larger chunks of the satellite could fall and be recovered, opening the possibility of secret technology falling into the hands of the Chinese or others.

Gates arrived in Hawaii less than two hours before the missile was launched. His press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said Gates had a conference call during his flight with Cartwright and Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of Strategic Command. They told him that "the conditions were ripe for an attempt, and that is when the secretary gave the go-ahead to take the shot, and wished them good luck," Morrell said.

At 10:35 p.m. EST, Gates spoke to both generals again and "was informed that the mission was a success, that the missile had intercepted the decaying satellite, and the secretary was obviously very pleased to learn that," said Morrell.

The elaborate intercept may trigger worries from some international leaders, who could see it as a thinly disguised attempt to test an anti-satellite weapon - one that could take out other nations' orbiting communications and spy spacecraft.

Within hours of the reported success, China said it was on the alert for possible harmful fallout from the shootdown and urged Washington to promptly release data on the action.

"China is continuously following closely the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at news conference in Beijing. "China requests the U.S. to fulfill its international obligations in real earnest and provide to the international community necessary information and relevant data in a timely and prompt way so that relevant countries can take precautions."

CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen said the negative reaction to the satellite shootdown was predictable. "China is also using the occasion to criticize the U.S. for not joining a joint China-Russia proposal for a treaty banning weapons in outer space," he said.

The Chinese have consistently opposed the Star Wars anti-missile defense program which is being actively pursued by the Bush administration, saying it could spark a new missile race.

That said, added Petersen, the Chinese have been aggressively upgrading their own military, leaving behind the concept of a million soldiers needed to win a battle, and are now focusing on high-tech weapons and systems.

"It would be optimistic to say the Chinese motives for criticizing the U.S. over weapons in outer space are about world peace," said Petersen. "In fact, it's also about China's desire to field a military as high-tech as America's someday soon. Every time America makes another technological advance, China's ambitions suffer a setback."

[ov442]

Pertaining to the story, this was a great achievement and excellent moment in our space and military history. Now if they can expand on this and become more able, that would be great.
As for China, they criticize us and make accusations while they just did one worse last year. They shot down one of their own, far higher up, and far larger and did a worse job by allowing many large chunks to fall to earth potentially causing harm.
Theirs was clearly a military attempt at satellite killing.

[ov442]

Posted by libsrc0kskrs
Youre wrong. Libs dont support anyone but our troops and good citizens. They certainly dont support miscreants such as yourself.
In fact the REpugnants refuse to support our troops. Time after time, the GOP has refused to fund proper protection and equipment requested by the military in the field. Many were sent over without any protection, and little training. They sent over National guard units for multiple tours overseas, against the purpose these folks signed up for. They lied to send us there. The GOP failed to take good care of wounded soldiers in need of proper mental and phyisical care after coming home. They Failed to even Go after the groups responsible for 9-11. They had them in afghanistan in Tora bora and didnt take the shot, they sent troops to IRaq instead of the additional requested for Afghanistan to chase the Al Quaida and Taliban and capture them even when we had them on the run literally.
No, this Repugnant GOP administration and the foolish GOP congress that supports them, and the completely ignorant republican supporters are truly against our troops and have been against them from the beginning.
The pathetic management of the war in IRaq has been from the beginning criticized with solutions, yet the GOP refused to change and sent thousands of our people to die and be wounded for nothing.

[usbrit-2009]

Unabashed liberal as I am, I am also a scientist and appreciate the great job these engineers did in blowing up the satellite. Remember, however, similar minds managed to hit a comet with a satellite year before last umpteen million miles from earth after three years flight. With todays computers the task at hand here was relatively simple. BTW hydrazine is a somewhat unstable chemical at the best of times(hence it''s use in rocket fuel). A thousnd lbs of it will decompose harmlessly in the atmosphere forming a 2000 lbs of smog and water vapor and will not come back down and kill fish. All metal parts will burn up - no problem.

[libsrc0kskrs]

hese are the gang who couldn''''t track three airliners on 9/11???
Yup, I feel safer...

Posted by Inventagod at 06:36 PM : Feb 21, 2008
+ report abuse

***********************

typical from a person who belongs to a ''gang'' of people who SUPPORTS the ''gang'' that is repsonsbile for 9/11..

i dont know i think i would be safer with a terrorist than a liberal.

[killtheliars]

how funny will it be if they went through all of that trouble only to find out that the intelligence info was not destroyed!

[gunnerv1]

ShoolCrazy This was part of what I did in the NAVY. It was fun blowing up stuff "It blowed up real good".

[toolmangler-2009]

That is kinda like hitting one rifle bullet with another (radio controlled bullet); That should shake up those that have any common sense or those that are thinking that America is on it last legs. Friend or foe should get the message ("don''t tread on me")

[oldpilot954]

So walt1944 are you saying we should have invested more into the starwars technologies or that we should leave ourselves defenseless? In reading your post, you obviously did not like what we did. What should we have done?

[inventagod]

These are the gang who couldn''t track three airliners on 9/11???
Yup, I feel safer...

[hvj2006]

Awesome.Congrats US NAVY..we are proud of you all. I mean thnks for showing the world what US-AMERICA is capable of. Great job NASA, US NAVY, SPACE STATION, AND AMERICA. aweosme MISSION accomplised...USpatriot

[donbl1]

Andor, America has great difficulty keeping a secret for longer than 15 minutes as one of the holders of the secret wants their fame and an interview on Oprah or 60 minutes.

So,,,,, I suspect it was a spy satellite as reported. The size also fits.

[andor3]

"Andor, I am not sure it was "staged" as having a new spy satellite shot down is pretty expensive"

Why would you think it was an "expenisve spy satellite" and not a drone? As I recall the government has never said what the satellite was. The spy idea was from an unconfirmed source speaking on condition of anonymity, officials refused to confirm citing security, etc.

In other words, it was a rumor started by the very people who would find it most convenient to have people believe it to be true.

[donbl1]

Andor, I am not sure it was "staged" as having a new spy satellite shot down is pretty expensive.

However, the government did use an otherwise expensive failure to show the good stuff! Opportunistic? Yeah and also a strong statement by the government. The USN has more anti-missile platforms (now) than any other nation could develop in the next 50 years and it was done on the sly.

[andor3]

Gates claims "Missile defense works" after satellite hit.

So we "conspiracy theory" folks are looking pretty vindicated now--remember we said this was a big staged event to try to validate the missile defense system?

Sure, you launch a satellite rigged to blow up on command then have it "fail" and reenter the atmosphere, launch a missile, make the sat self-destruct, catch it all on video. Only a select few would know the truth, if the launched missile had anything to do with saving the world from the "dangerous satellite"

Remember the sky is falling and only the government and military can save you--at least that is what the military-industrial-neocon complex is selling.

[hambonehd]

Well done!

Posted by donbl1 at 04:42 PM : Feb 21, 2008



Indeed !

[hambonehd]

walt1944,

you are one of the biggest idiots on here, day in and day out.
You people are killing this great nation.

[denn034]

All that uproar by the world for nothing. Much ado about nothing that''s for sure.

[donbl1]

This is a pretty impressive accomplishment by the USN.

All those spending money on developing missiles against the US must now be thinking about where they should be spending money......

The USN has a large number of Aegis cruisers and destroyers. Not sure how many can fire SM3 missles but I suspect most can be upgraded from SM2''s.

This was a pretty dramatic statement of America''s capability.

Well done!

[shawnp20]

demslie........Thank you for sharing your ignorance with the world!!! People like you are the reason I never watch Comedy Central (it pales in comparison to the humor spewing out of your mind)

[dogband]

Sabre rattling at its finest.

I''m betting our warmongering republicans wet their pants on this one

BUSH AND MCCAIN -- MORE OF THE SAME.