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What goes up must come down. When the thing going up is a man-made satellite, it usually comes down in a blaze of glory, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere miles above the surface while traveling at Mach 25.

But if it's a US spy satellite, things get a little trickier. And that's exactly the case of USA 193, the spy satellite that went awry.

It was launched on December 14, 2006 and successfully made it to orbit. But ground controllers immediately lost contact with it and thus, the ability to control it. So it tumbled aimlessly in space, its orbit slowly decaying, ravished by the effects of the upper atmosphere.

When it became apparent in February, 2008 that the doom of USA 193 was imminent, an unprecedented decision was made to shoot it down. Even though dozens of similar satellites fall harmlessly through the atmosphere and plop into the ocean every year, this one was different.

Why did the government decide that USA 193 needed special attention? There are four good reasons - one "official" reason and three more reasons that are obvious to anyone who watches the political scene.

1. To save or reduce injury to human life.
This was the official reason given. It's also the most lame reason. What made USA 193 different is that it contained a fuel tank of 1,000 pounds of highly toxic frozen hydrazine. Satellites that are decommissioned usually have virtually empty tanks. Since this one was still full, it was feared that it would survive re-entry and cause harm to anyone unfortunate enough to come in its path.

That's a fair argument, but mostly without merit. Two thirds of the earth's surface is water. Most of the land is uninhabited. There was virtually no chance that the satellite would come down within a thousand miles of any human being. Even if the fuel tank survived re-entry, it would certainly be breached and the highly volatile fuel would have dissipated high in the atmosphere. A cow in an open field would stand a greater chance of being hit than a human.

Regardless of the "official" reason given for shooting it down, there must be more. Well, here it is:

2. To PREVENT military intelligence data from ending up in enemy hands.
This is probably the best reason, but it's one that the government will never own up to. And you can't blame them. Football players plan their strategies in a huddle for a reason - you don't want to tell the enemy what you're doing. You don't even want to tell the enemy that you don't want to tell the enemy! Duh.

The military is still smarting

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