Missile Destroyed Satellite’s Fuel Tank, Pentagon Says
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said today it has a “high degree of confidence” that the missile fired at a dead American spy satellite in space destroyed the satellite’s fuel tank as planned.
In its most definitive statement yet on the outcome of last Wednesday’s shootdown over the Pacific, the Pentagon said that based on debris analysis it is clear that the Navy missile destroyed the fuel tank, “reducing, if not eliminating, the risk to people on Earth from the hazardous chemical.”
The tank had 1,000 pounds of hydrazine, a toxic substance that American government officials believed posed a potential health hazard to humans if the satellite had descended to Earth on its own.
Pentagon officials had said almost immediately after the shootdown that it appeared the tank had been hit squarely, but they carried out further analysis before reaching a final conclusion.
“By all accounts this was a successful mission,” a vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Cartwright, said in the Pentagon statement today. “From the debris analysis, we have a high degree of confidence the satellite’s fuel tank was destroyed and the hydrazine has been dissipated.”
The Pentagon statement said a space operations center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is tracking fewer than 3,000 pieces of debris, all smaller than a football.
