Navy hits satellite with one shot

Washington Post:

A missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean hit an out-of-control spy satellite falling toward Earth last night, Pentagon officials said.

They said that a single SM-3 missile fired from the USS Lake Erie hit the satellite at 10:26 p.m. Eastern time. The missile struck the dead satellite about 150 miles above Earth as it traveled in orbit at more than 17,000 mph.

Military officials had hoped to rupture the satellite's fuel tank to prevent 1,000 pounds of hydrazine from crashing to Earth, a situation they depicted as potentially hazardous for people on the ground. It was unclear last night whether the missile hit was able to break up the fuel tank, but Pentagon officials said they hope to determine that within 24 hours.

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Fox has shown the video of the launch and hit on the satellite and the military is pretty sure that the fuel tank was hit and they have detected a hydrogen vapor trail after the hit. The military says it will know for sure in the next 24 hours if there is any residual danger from the falling satellite. In the meantime our adversaries have to be wary of the demonstration and Democrats who have expressed doubts about our abilities to do such things have to be concerned about how wrong they were.

Gail Collins at the NY Times offers her column today as an example of liberal snark when it comes to the shoot down. You get the impression she was hoping for failure.