High-powered team planned satellite strategy

By Robert Burns

updated 6:07 p.m. ET Feb. 15, 2008

WASHINGTON - Long before the public learned in late January that a damaged U.S. spy satellite carrying toxic fuel was going to crash to Earth, the government secretly assembled a high-powered team of officials and scientists to study the feasibility of shooting it down with a missile.

The order to launch the crash program came Jan. 4, according to defense officials who described Friday how it came to fruition for a final go-ahead decision by President Bush this week. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition they not be identified because of the sensitivity of the work.

The initial order was twofold: Assess whether shooting down the satellite with a missile was even possible, and at the same time urgently piece together the technological tools it would take to succeed.

In a matter of weeks, three Navy warships — the USS Lake Erie, USS Decatur and USS Russell — were outfitted with modified Aegis anti-missile systems, the ships' crews were trained for an unprecedented mission, and three SM-3 missiles were pulled off an assembly line and given a new guidance system.

The decision to attempt a shootdown was disclosed by the Pentagon on Thursday. On Friday officials said it could happen next week, shortly after the space shuttle Atlantis returns from its current voyage at midweek. Officials want the Atlantis to be home to avoid the risk of being hit with satellite debris.

Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that it's difficult not only to hit the satellite but even to know the best time to shoot.

How the satellite shootdown would work Key aspects of the plan for intercepting the broken spy satellite: — A single missile, of a type known as the Standard Missile 3, would be launched from a Navy ship at sea. The missile was originally designed to intercept a ballistic missile in flight, not a spacecraft, so the missile and its associated software have been modified. — Ideally, the missile will strike the satellite directly just before it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, breaking it into small pieces that will mostly fall through the atmosphere rather than become space debris. — If the first shot misses, a second attempt may be made. — A "window of opportunity" for hitting the satellite has been calculated to begin in three or four days. It could last as long as eight days. The Pentagon did not announce the exact date of an intercept attempt. — The decision to proceed was made by President Bush. — Diplomatic notice was sent to other countries. — In 14 test flights, the Standard Missile 3 has achieved 12 intercepts, most recently in December. — There are three Navy cruisers equipped with the missile.

"It's a bit of an imprecise science at this point," Ham said.

With an eye to the possibility that the missile effort will fail, the government has placed six rescue teams across the country to be prepared to act if the satellite hits the United States, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency memo dated Feb. 14 and obtained by The Associated Press.

The spacecraft contains 1,000 pounds of hydrazine in a tank that is expected to survive re-entry and a fuel tank liner made of beryllium.

FEMA has prepared a guide for emergency responders that includes information about hydrazine and beryllium. The agency warns officials not to pick up any debris or provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to anyone who has inhaled hydrazine or beryllium.

The AP first reported on Jan. 26 that the U.S. satellite had lost power and was going to crash to Earth by early March. Normally the government would simply let a dying spacecraft fall on its own, with minuscule odds that it would land in a populated area. But in this case, Bush was persuaded by advisers that it would be worth trying to shoot it down to reduce the risk from the on-board toxic fuel.

As a first of its kind, the shootdown scenario draws on a wide range of scientific and military technologies — from ships and radar sites in the Pacific to high-powered telescopes in Hawaii and elsewhere, to a specially fitted Air Force plane and a Navy ship that snoops on missile tests.

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