Debris tracked after missile hits US spy satellite

DEBRIS from an obliterated US 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 yesterday, hours after a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the failing spacecraft.

Marine General James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an expert on military space technologies, told a Pentagon news conference officials have a “high degree of confidence” the missile launched from a Navy cruiser hit exactly where intended.

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

Cartwright estimated there was an 80%-90% chance 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 there’s no fuel [on the tip of the missile], that would indicate it’s a hydrazine fire.”

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 as of yesterday debris had only been seen in the atmosphere and none had been detected surviving re-entry. He indicated debris appeared unlikely to pose a problem.

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.