Pentagon Satellite Shot to Use Missile Defense Data Gathering Tools

By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department intends to use missile interceptor telemetry to help determine whether its upcoming attempt to destroy an ailing spy satellite on the near edge of space has been successful, a senior official said today (see GSN, Feb. 15).

Bush administration officials have said they intend to break apart the nonfunctioning spacecraft before it can tumble back to Earth, because its fuel tank contains a toxic gas that might pose a health threat to anyone immediately near the debris.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency installed special wiring on the Standard Missile 3 to be used for the intercept “because this is more like a test” than a typical use of the weapon, according to the senior defense official, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon on condition of not being named.

The missile defense test-monitoring technology “tells you … everything that’s happening,” the official said.  “The instrumentation … will give us even more awareness of the performance and the activities going on.”

Military and space experts said last week the Pentagon could potentially gather useful data during the intercept that might support any future U.S. antisatellite missions. 

However, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected that rationale for the anticipated action.  He said the military already has a sufficient understanding of antisatellite operations from tests performed some 20 years ago, and cited the dangerous hydrazine fuel on the spacecraft as the sole reason for the intercept.

For the upcoming mission, the Pentagon plans to fire the Navy missile from an Aegis ship in the Pacific Ocean, hoping for a direct hit on the satellite’s fuel tank in its initial shot.  This is the first time the Standard Missile 3 would be launched against a satellite.  The weapon was built to intercept enemy missiles with tactical or regional ranges.

To undertake the unusual mission, the Navy modified the interceptor’s heat-seeking sensors so it could better detect the satellite, which would be much cooler than a warhead that had just been boosted through the atmosphere by a rocket, the Associated Press and CNN reported today.

If the first shot fails, other attempts could follow by Feb. 29 — or perhaps even later, depending in part on the weather, said the senior official.

With the space shuttle Atlantis having landed safely at just after 9 a.m., a first crack at the mission might occur as early as today.  However, that looked unlikely as of this morning because of choppy seas, the senior official said.

“The [launch] window we’re talking about here is very precise, only a matter of seconds,” said the official, noting there would be just one possible window each day.  “So you have to be at exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and all criteria have to line up exactly right” for a direct hit to occur.

U.S. Strategic Command, based at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Neb., is set to command the satellite-destruction mission.

The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., led by the Air Force, would coordinate space-based sensor tracking for the intercept.  Additionally, the Army-led Joint Integrated Missile Defense Team in Colorado Springs, Colo., plans to use large, ground-based radars and telescopes to observe the mission.

Pentagon officials expect to hit the satellite only during daylight hours, which should make it easier to fracture the fuel tank on the first shot and assess whether the dangerous gas has escaped into space.

Pieces of debris generated by the intercept would circle the Earth about every 90 minutes, with more than half of the fragments descending into the atmosphere during the first hours and days following the mission. 

“Trying to count the [pieces of] debris, [assess] the size of the debris, where the debris is located as it orbits the Earth — all of that [wreckage] that has not come down — while there [are] parts of it coming down, is difficult,” the official said.  “There’s going to be a lot of ambiguity — where’s the tank in all of this?”

The steep challenges following the shot pose “another reason why daylight … is important,” the official said.  “Because if we can get optical sensors, if we can get other [sensors] on it, we get a higher degree of confidence that we understand that the key piece of hardware that we’re after, which is that tank,” has been destroyed, the official said.

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