March 27,
2008: The February 22nd, 2008 destruction of a broken U.S. spy satellite by a
U.S. warship, firing an anti-aircraft missile modified to intercept ballistic
missiles, answered a lot of questions about how to do this sort of thing. While
a U.S. cruiser used its Aegis radar to locate the satellite, some 220
kilometers above, before firing a single SM-3 missile to destroy the truck
sized satellite, larger radars and telescopes were used to predict the orbit of
the target. This wasn't easy, because the satellite was out of control, and
moving erratically. The orbit had to be predicted at least to the point where
the Aegis warship could position itself under that orbit. But that was a good
thing, if this anti-satellite weapon was to be used again. In wartime, an enemy
satellite might try to maneuver to avoid a shot from an Aegis equipped warship.
The
February 22nd shot took six weeks to plan, mainly because there were so many
unknowns. Now, many of those unknowns are knowns and another shoot-down could
be carried out much more quickly. How quickly remains a secret.
There were
other surprises as well. When the 20 pound missile warhead hit the satellite,
there was an unexpected explosion, as the hydrazine fuel of the satellite
ignited. The flames burned for over twenty seconds. The impact of the warhead
(which is inert, just a chunk of metal), was more destructive than anticipated,
breaking the satellite up into more, and smaller, pieces. That was good, as those tiny fragments are
less likely to hurt anything it hits.
The navy
is setting up procedures for possible future satellite take-downs, and will be
running some drills to test these new procedures.
