The Satellite Shootdown: Behind the Scenes

A warship's missile hits its target to cheers from the control room

Posted February 25, 2008

A modified tactical Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) launches from the USS Lake Erie impacting a non-functioning NRO satellite.

Debris

From what I heard yesterday, there is not much debris to track...Within the first four hours, there were no pieces much bigger than a football...I don't know whether I can say the number, but it's quite small. There are four stages for the missile. The first booster falls into the ocean. The second stage burns up, the third stage falls off, and the warhead's only that big. It's not coming back here. Nobody's getting any pieces.