by Malinda Terry

Created on: February 22, 2008

The United States military has been hitting moving missiles with moving missiles for nearly twenty years now. For the last five years they have had the ability to hit something that is moving at a high rate of speed in outer space with missiles. Raytheon Missile Systems makes the missile, the Standard Missile 3 (SM3) that shot down the spy satellite on February 20th, 2008. This technology has been compared to hitting a moving bullet with a moving bullet, which while difficult, is not impossible, considering the ever expanding technology.

The spy satellite, USA 193, launched in 2006, had never functioned correctly and it had been noted that from the very beginning it never reached the altitude in the atmosphere it needed to be at, nor did it respond to efforts to correct its orbit. That left a 5,000 pound hunk of junk traveling at 17,000 mph, with a tank holding 1,000 frozen pounds of hydrazine, wobbling out of orbit and headed for earth. Where is Superman when you need him? Luckily we don't depend on a superhero and even better, the military had something that could stop the potentially lethal poison aboard the satellite from being atomized and spread into Earth's fragile atmosphere. Hydrazine is nasty stuff, especially when inhaled. Essentially it burns your lungs up, making it impossible to breathe. It is not something most of us would want even a remote chance of coming in contact with.

The United States military had a few other missiles to choose from to take care of destroying the spy satellite. There is the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), and the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI); both part of the space defense program initiated by President Regan. The EKV and the KEI are designed to intercept nuclear warheads while in mid-air, even if they are in outer space. The SM3 was chosen to shoot down the satellite because, although all the missiles have become increasingly accurate, a 90% rate of accuracy, the SM3 cost significantly less and it is a kinetic weapon; it destroys things by just hitting them at a high velocity. The SM3 missile used on the satellite did cost more than the average SM3 due to the fact that extensive changes needed to be made in the missile's software and the launch equipment onboard the U.S.S. Lake Erie, where it was launched from. It took thirty days of around the clock work to make the needed changes.

Many eyes were turned toward the sky, not only was the satellite being shot down but in some parts of the world a lunar eclipse was

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