On Wednesday, February 20th, sometime around 9:36pm CST, (coincidentally, nearly the same exact time as the total lunar eclipse) the Navy successfully hit the decaying spy satellite USA-193 with a missile launched from a ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

45-minutes ago from the AFP:

The US Defense Department said late Wednesday it had successfully used a ship-board missile to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite before it plummeted to Earth.

“At approximately 10:26 pm today (0326 GMT Thursday), a US Navy Aegis warship, the USS Lake Erie, fired a single modified tactical standard missile 3, hitting the satellite approximately 247 kilometers (133 nautical miles) over the Pacific Ocean as it travelled in space more than 17,000 miles (44,000 kilometers) per hour,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

The Pentagon reports that it could be 24 hours before they know if their primary objective, to destroy the large fuel tank full of toxic hydrazine propellant, was successful or not, though they do report viewing an explosion on impact.

Debris from the explosion will begin falling and burning up in the earth’s atmosphere immediately, and could continue for days. I don’t know about you, but if you’re in the projected ground path of where the satellite should have been, thats a ripe invitation to head outside and watch for an impromptu meteor debris shower over the next few nights.

On any accord, let’s pray to the Gods of All Things Awesome that somebody is going to share some video of the missile-on-satellite action. Please!

US shoots down rogue spy satellite – AFP

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