WASHINGTON - The Pentagon says a U.S. missile smashed a disabled spy satellite that was headed for earth and the military is tracking the debris as it falls over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon press conference Thursday that he couldn't rule out that hazardous material would fall to the earth.
But he says so far officials have tracked "nothing larger than a football."
Cartwright says officials also "have a high degree of confidence" — though are not ready to say for sure — that the missile launched from a Navy ship near Hawaii struck the satellite's fuel tank. Officials said the toxic hydrazine fuel in the tank would have caused a hazard had it fallen to earth. Destroying the satellite’s onboard tank of about 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, and a U.S. official earlier told NBC News that it "looks like the tank was hit."
"It is still going to take some more analysis" to determine what happened to the fuel, but early indications were positive, the official said.
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon press conference Thursday that he couldn't rule out that hazardous material would fall to the earth.
But he says so far officials have tracked "nothing larger than a football."
Cartwright says officials also "have a high degree of confidence" — though are not ready to say for sure — that the missile launched from a Navy ship near Hawaii struck the satellite's fuel tank. Officials said the toxic hydrazine fuel in the tank would have caused a hazard had it fallen to earth. Destroying the satellite’s onboard tank of about 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, and a U.S. official earlier told NBC News that it "looks like the tank was hit."
"It is still going to take some more analysis" to determine what happened to the fuel, but early indications were positive, the official said.
Navy says missile smashed wayward satellite
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Reviewed by Bobby
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