The Navy will attempt to shoot down a disabled 5,000-pound spy satellite in the next couple of days before it crashes to Earth. I’m going to say this is probably not going to go well:
The operation will be carried out from a Navy ship that will fire a missile modified for the task, which resembles shooting down a ballistic missile warhead as it begins to re-enter the atmosphere.
President Bush ordered the military to try to pick off the satellite because “there was a possibility of death or injury to human beings beyond that associated with the fall of satellites and other space object normally, if we can use that word,” a deputy national security adviser, James Jeffrey, said.
The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, of the Marine Corps, said “a window of opportunity” to pick off the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere will open in the next three or four days and last for seven or eight days. If the first shot misses, there should be time for a second attempt before the satellite enters the atmosphere, when it would be “next to impossible” to score a hit because of atmospheric disturbances, the general said.
If the satellite is not intercepted, it will tumble out of control into the atmosphere in early March, he said.
Considering our track record (see here and here) on shooting objects out of the air I’m going to guess it’s even harder to shoot an object out of space. This isn’t the first time a man made object has fallen from the sky with the possibly of killing us, Skylab fell to Earth but there was still a little control of the vessel before reentry. The seriousness of this situation is due to the toxic fuel on board and lack of navigational control of this satellite.
At least we know the Chinese were able to shoot one out of Space early last year.
