Little more than a year after China drew international reproach for shooting down its weather satellite, the Pentagon announced plans to take out its aging spy satellite before it crashes to the Earth.
The decision is not based on concerns about sensitive spy technology falling into the wrong hands or significant chunks of metal hitting pedestrians in the street, said Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It?s about a significant reserve of potentially deadly hydrazine fuel that could cause a health risk if it reached a populated area in any significant concentration.
“All of our satellites have fuel that is reserved in order to control where it goes down, like into the ocean,” Cartwright said during an interview on CNN on Thursday.
But the spy satellite?s communications have been dead for some time, and that fuel is likely frozen solid.
“We have no way to communicate and invoke the safety measures we already have on board,” he said.
The 5,000-pound satellite, called US 193, contains 1,000 pounds of hydrazine and lost power and computer operations soon after being launched in December 2006.
Pentagon and NASA officials are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure debris does not endanger populated areas or interfere with aviation.
Their goal is to strike the satellite just as it enters the atmosphere, minimizing the amount of shrapnel that remains in orbit and poses a danger to other satellites or the International Space Station.
Scientists estimated the wreckage from the Chinese shoot-down threatens about 800 satellites in space, 400 of which are U.S.-owned, according to a report from the Air Force Space Command in Colorado.
