Let's Shoot Down a Satellite!

No doubt you've heard of the satellite that's going to be shot down?

The military will try to shoot down a crippled spy satellite in the next two weeks, senior officials said Thursday. The officials laid out a high-tech plan to intercept the satellite over the Pacific just before it tumbles uncontrollably to Earth carrying toxic fuel.

The real reason is undoubtedly the one they are denying.

President Bush ordered the action to prevent any possible contamination from the hazardous rocket fuel on board, and not out of any concern that parts of the spacecraft might survive and reveal its secrets, the officials said.

Uh-huh. You think that the fuel tank will survive the fall intact, but not the electronics and/or imaging gear? Good lord, how dumb do you think we are?

Specialists in spy satellites have speculated that the problem satellite, managed by the National Reconnaissance Office, is an experimental imagery device built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Delta II rocket.

Well, doofus, is the satellite in an equatorial orbit, or a near-polar orbit? I could say more on the subject, but I think my former employers (see above) would still get a bit testy about that.