Maybe this was a humanitarian mission, to prevent wreckage from a dead satellite from littering a 100 mile swath. Perhaps the environmental aspect was the reason, as it was supposed to contain deadly fuel. Or, maybe it was a statement of military prowess and the willingness to use it.
President Bush now has something else to add to his legacy: A significant milestone in the militarization of space.
Josh White and Marc Kaufman write for The Washington Post this morning: “Military officials have a ‘high degree of confidence’ that they were able to hit and destroy the tank of potentially dangerous fuel aboard a wayward spy satellite orbiting Earth last night, but they said they must still monitor the debris to be certain it does not pose further risk of reentering the atmosphere in coming days.”
But consider this: “Before last night’s intercept, some experts had expressed doubts about the seriousness of the risk posed by the falling satellite and questioned whether the shot was an excuse to perform an anti-satellite test that many people around the world found controversial,” White and Kaufman write.
The Washington Post has the entire story.
