US plans to shoot down own satellite

The US military is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite due to crash land on Earth in the next few weeks, the Pentagon has announced.

President George W Bush approved the option to fire a missile from a US Navy ship to destroy the satellite before it enters the atmosphere, officials said.

(…) The US Navy plans to modify a Standard Missile 3 to be launched from an Aegis destroyer - usually part of the US Missile Defense System designed to intercept ballistic missiles.

Gen Cartwright said they planned to have one missile shot, but there would be three missiles available on three ships. If the first attempt was unsuccessful, a decision would be made whether a second attempt was required.

It must be done before it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, otherwise the craft would be “next to impossible” to hit because of atmospheric disturbances.

“We are better off taking the attempt than not,” Gen Cartwright said. BBC

It will be interesting to see if this actually works.

If it does, the US will have publicly admitted that it has the capability to down satellites.

If it doesn’t, the US will have publicly admitted the system it claims can shoot down missiles it quite literally tracks on the fly cannot shoot down a satellite the location of which is exactly known. The the new defence system Putin, the EU, and the US are facing off about (entry) is also based on this technology and failure to down the satellite would call its effectiveness into question.