February
16, 2008 US Will Clean Up any
Debris
from Satellite Shoot-Down
Washington/Geneva
A day after the US military outlined a high-tech plan to shoot down
a rogue spy satellite carrying toxic fuel, a US diplomat in Geneva
pledged that the US would be responsible for any damage by debris to
another country.
Christina Rocca, the US permanent representative to the UN
Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva, Friday said the operation
- which is to occur in the coming two weeks - would be timed to
minimise the chance that any initial debris would impact a populated
area.
The Pentagon plans to bring down the defective spy satellite using a
tactical standard missle-3 fired from a shipboard Aegis system
deployed somewhere in the northern Pacific. The event would be an
all-time first, using the experience of anti-missile tests.
The satellite has about 450 kg of hydrazine fuel, which could be
lethal if inhaled in high concentrations that could spread over two
football fields.
The Pentagon lost communication with the satellite shortly after
launch in December 2006, putting it out of reach of ground
controllers who could have brought it down safely, defence officials
said in Washington.
Without intervention, the satellite would enter Earth's atmosphere
on or around March 6 as its orbit decays, and land anywhere on
Earth, Rocca said.
She mentioned the broad span between 58.5 degrees north latitude,
across northern Canada and central Russia - and 58.5 degrees south,
across the southern Pacific Ocean between Tierra del Fuego and
Antarctica.
Her appearance, which she said was "in the interests of
transparency", was part of a worldwide diplomatic rollout by the US
government after US President George W. Bush made the decision to
shoot down the satellite.
If the missile strike fails, she said, the US would provide any
assistance necessary to national governments on whose territory any
debris landed.
The US would also be liable for any damage caused as under the terms
of the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused
by Space Objects.
"This is an emergency response to prevent the possible loss of life.
This engagement is not part of an anti-satellite and testing
programme," Rocca said. The US did not intend to retain the
technical capability resulting from the operation, she said.
When China launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy an ageing
weather satellite in orbit in January 2007, the US, Japan and other
countries lodged protests because it generated debris that remained
in orbit over a wide range of Earth's surface.
Bringing down the spy satellite will generate debris that will fall
out of orbit within weeks, Deputy National Security Advisor James
Jeffrey said Thursday in Washington.
Both the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union experimented with
anti-satellite missile technology in the 1980s but abandoned their
programmes out of fear that debris from such explosions in space
could damage other satellites.
Bush gave the go-ahead for shooting down the satellite because he
"determined that protecting against the possible risk to human life
was paramount", Rocca said.
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