Navy meets the odds

With odds of 1 million-to-1 against the Navy missing, Reed Richards, a spokesman for the gambling Web site, said, “We?re pretty confident in the Navy?s ability to hit this target.”

The Defense Department on Wednesday created a no-fly zone over several hundred miles of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii in preparation to shoot down the satellite. The 5,000-pound eye in the sky called US 193 carries 1,000 pounds of toxic hydrazine fuel that could spread a cloud over a populated area, the Pentagon says.

BetUS posted odds Tuesday on everything from a Navy miss to debris hitting the White House (1 trillion-to-1 against).

“We had thousands of people racing to wager in the first few hours,” Richards said. “I?ve never seen anything going this quickly.”

The site has posted odds on everything from global warming to the failure of the Apple iPhone.

While much of its business is derived from sports, the site has a lively entertainment element, Richards said. “We try to anticipate everything from ?American Idol? winners to celebrity divorces,” he said.

In short, if it?s making headlines, BetUS can probably find a way to make money off it.

The Navy warned all ships and planes Wednesday afternoon that the first attempt to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite would come later that night.

The satellite, carrying sophisticated, top-secret imaging equipment, malfunctioned immediately after launch in December 2006 and has been floating with a full tank of fuel since.

Navy engineers retrofitted three Standard Missile 3 intercept vehicles, in hopes of disintegrating the satellite at the edge of the atmosphere to ensure debris re-enters and burns up quickly.

Though BetUS showed its faith in the missile jockeys, the Pentagon has been more reserved.

Because of bad weather in the north Pacific, the missile launch could be delayed until sometime today.

The missile has to be fired within a 10-second window to hit the satellite, which travels at 2,000 miles per hour.

“To my knowledge, I don?t think anyone has ever tried to shoot an object from space to stop it from hitting Earth,” Richards said. “Hopefully, it works out better than the ?Simpsons? episode in which the rocket missed the asteroid and destroyed the only way out of Springfield.”

Betting closed late Wednesday afternoon, Richards said.

BetUS posted the following odds:

Where will the satellite land?

» The satellite falls on the White House ? 1,000,000,000,000/1 (no bets as of 2 p.m. Wednesday)

» The satellite falls on land ? 2/1

» The satellite falls in the water ? 1/3

» The satellite begins working again and goes back into orbiting ? 50/1

» The satellite lands in water and wakes up the “Cloverfield” monster ? 1,000,000,000,000/1

What will be the outcome of the rocket launched?

» We hit and destroy the satellite ? 11/10

» We hit, but do NOT destroy the satellite ? 10/1

» We miss the satellite ? 8/11 (upgraded to 1,000,000/1 Wednesday)

» We accidentally hit North Korea ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Iraq ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Iran ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Afghanistan ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Cuba – 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Canada ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit Russia ? 1000/1

» We accidentally hit the moon ? 1000/1

Source: BetUS

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