Satellite shootdown puts focus on security

[unhappycamper]

Satellite shootdown puts focus on security
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 22, 2008 23:52:19 EST

The Navy’s shootdown of a rogue U.S. spy satellite blasted satellite security back onto the front pages just a year after the Chinese garnered similar attention by destroying one of their own weather satellites.

U.S. Defense Department officials said the decision to intercept the satellite was based on a safety concern: to ensure that toxic hydrazine fuel still onboard didn’t survive re-entry into the atmosphere and endanger the public when the fuel cell crashed to Earth.

However, Chinese and Russian officials — along with other space weapons experts — remained skeptical over U.S. motives, saying it was an opportunity for the Defense Department to test a ballistic missile defense platform against a satellite in a real-world scenario.

The Navy’s guided missile cruiser Lake Erie fired a single modified tactical Standard Missile 3 using the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System at 10:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 20, intercepting the National Reconnaissance Office satellite. Defense Department engineers had to alter the missile’s targeting software to track a satellite instead of the ballistic missile that it was built to hunt.

Despite the controversy, Air Force space officials said the issue simply reinforced Space Command’s message that space is a contested environment and can’t be ignored, given U.S. military and economic dependence on space assets.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/02/airforce_spacecommand_022208w/