http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23265613

This is interesting to read...

Navy missile hits spy satellite
‘It looks like the tank was hit,’ official tells NBC News
MSNBC News Services
updated 9:29 p.m. PT, Wed., Feb. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - A missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said.

The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles — not orbiting satellites — launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. ET (0326 GMT Thursday), according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite as the spacecraft traveled at more than 17,000 mph (27,000 kilometers per hour).

Because the satellite was orbiting at a relatively low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.

"Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days," it said.

The use of the Navy missile amounted to an unprecedented use of components of the Pentagon's missile defense system, designed to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles in flight — not kill satellites.

The goal in this first-of-its-kind mission for the Navy was not just to hit the satellite but to obliterate a tank aboard the spacecraft carrying 1,000 pounds of a toxic fuel called hydrazine.

"It looks like the tank was hit," a U.S. official told NBC News. "It is still going to take some more analysis" to determine what happened to the fuel, but early indications were positive, the official said.

U.S. officials have said the fuel would pose a potential health hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area. Although the odds of that were small even if the Pentagon had chosen not to try to shoot down the satellite, it was determined that it was worth trying to eliminate even that small chance.

Officials said it might take a day or longer to know for sure if the toxic fuel was blown up.

The government has organized hazardous materials teams to be flown to the site of any dangerous or otherwise sensitive debris that might land in the U.S. or elsewhere. The operation was so extraordinary, with such intense international publicity and political ramifications, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates — not a military commander — made the final decision to pull the trigger.

Delicate operation
The U.S. government organized hazardous materials teams, under the code name "Burnt Frost," to be flown to the site of any dangerous or otherwise sensitive debris that might land in the United States or elsewhere.

High seas in the north Pacific had threatened to postpone the launch as the USS Lake Erie prepared a three-stage missile. Beyond a certain point, rough seas can interfere with the cruiser's launch procedures.

The Navy launched an SM-3 missile 130 miles to just beyond the edge of the Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to speed its non-explosive warhead directly into the satellite.

Early in the day, a senior military officer said it did not look as if the weather would be good enough. That was shortly after the space shuttle Atlantis landed, removing the last safety issue for the military to begin determining the best moment for launch.

The aim was not just to hit the bus-sized satellite — which would burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere anyway — but to obliterate a tank onboard that is carrying 1,000 pounds of hydrazine, a toxic fuel. The fuel, unused because the satellite died shortly after reaching orbit in December 2006 — could be hazardous if it landed in a populated area.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health bulletin saying that the health risk from satellite debris was considered to be low. "However, CDC is encouraging health officials and clinicians to review information about the health effects related to hydrazine to prepare in case their communities are affected by satellite debris."



In a routine precaution, notifications have been issued worldwide to mariners and aviators to stay clear of an area in the Pacific where the satellite debris might fall. The military has calculated that the risk to aviation is so low that U.S. and international aviation officials decided not to reroute air traffic, a senior military officer said Wednesday.

The shootdown, which was approved by President Bush, is seen by some as blurring the lines between defending against a hostile long-range missile and targeting satellites in orbit.

Much of the equipment used in the satellite shootdown was part of the Pentagon's missile defense system, a far-flung network of interceptors, radars and communications systems designed primarily to hit an incoming hostile ballistic missile fired at the United States by North Korea. The equipment, including the Navy missile, has never been used against a satellite or other such target.

The three-stage Navy missile has chalked up a high rate of success in tests since 2002 — in each case targeting a short- or medium-range missile. A hurry-up program to adapt the missile for this anti-satellite mission was completed in a matter of weeks; Navy officials say the changes will be reversed once this satellite is down.

Left alone, the satellite would have been expected to hit Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft would be expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over several hundred miles.

The Associated Press and NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this story.

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damm wish i could read

So is it safe to go to Hawaii now? I'm outta here!

Thanks for the report Lisa!

Nitey nite!

kaboom

However, in view of

".S. officials have said the fuel would pose a potential health hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area. Although the odds of that were small even if the Pentagon had chosen not to try to shoot down the satellite, it was determined that it was worth trying to eliminate even that small chance."


Does this mean that if the fuel hits unpopulated ground, the animals will die, or it if hits populated waters, the sealife will die since it is my understanding that the fuel is toxic?

THAT IS ALOT ,,WOW THAT REALLY HAPPENED ??

I think their saying their just making a toxic junk yard in space & sorry if you get hit by something that is tough enough to make it all the way to earth...
They did warn us so that covers their butts...

where i want some space junk ????

Truly amazing stuff.

here's the effects of Hydrazine...

" Symptoms of acute (short-term) exposure to high levels of hydrazine may include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures, coma in humans. Acute exposure can also damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. The liquid is corrosive and may produce dermatitis from skin contact in humans and animals. Effects to the lungs, liver, spleen, and thyroid have been reported in animals chronically exposed to hydrazine via inhalation. Increased incidences of lung, nasal cavity, and liver tumors have been observed in rodents exposed to hydrazine.[17]

At least one human is known to have died from exposure to hydrazine hydrate.[18]"


oh and ladies "Hydrazine is used in many processes including: production of spandex fibers"...

Hydrazine or more specifically UDMH Mix, is Unsymetrical Dymethyl Hydrazine mixed in equal parts by volume with Anhydrous Hydrazine is an extremely flammable, corrosive, poison. It forms a flammable mixture with air in any concentraion between 2.9% and 98%.

It will iginite spontaeously on contact with any oxidizer including rust which is iron oxide. It may also spontaneously combust when it contacts porous materials such as earth, wood or cloth and may decompose and ignite when exposed to air.

The OSHA permissible exposure limit is 1 part per million. It is classified as a carcinogen. Because of it's extreme volitility it is always transported and stored in containers that are pressurized with Nitrogen an inert gas.

The chances of a thousand gallon container of this stuff surviving the heat of re-entry and not rupturing and igniting when it hits the ground are almost nonexistant.

Remember that the space shuttle also uses this fuel for it's steering rocket motors and it's retro rockets that slow it enough to re-enter the earth's atmosphere.

We have had two shuttles explode, one on launch and one on re-entry. in neither case was there any contamination from the fuel.

Additionally, at least one type of military fighter plane carries a 30 gallon supply of hydrazine as an emergency fuel supply to give it additional flying time in case it runs out of fuel. Several of these have crashed and there was no contamination from the fuel. It is pretty much a given if hydrazine gets out of it's container and contacts much of anything or is exposed to a heat source it is going to burn up.

The Hydrazine makes a nice cover story but there was something else on that spy satelite that they didn't want hitting the ground. Additionally it was a nice display to show the Russians how accurate our ABMs are.