The Satellite Shootdown: Behind the Scenes

Here's an interview with the Captain of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, R. M. Hendrickson. It's an unusual look into the workings of a U.S. Naval ship and the cooperation with civilian contractors responsible for the missile and the software used to guide the missile. This is truly a bullet hitting a bullet.

Thank you, Ronald Reagan. Thank you, U. S. Navy.

FROM USNEWS.COM:

The Satellite Shootdown: Behind the Scenes
A warship's missile hits its target to cheers from the control room
By Anna Mulrine
Posted February 25, 2008
Capt. R. M. Hendrickson stepped across the deck of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie last Saturday afternoon to a bank of ballistic missile launch tubes, motioning to the particular 2-by-2-foot location from which a missile flew from the ship positioned at the time some 420 miles northwest of Hawaii.

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

The missile hit its target, destroying a defective intelligence satellite that was falling toward Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. It was unclear where the satellite would have hit had it crashed, most likely into the ocean. But the Pentagon had expressed particular concern about the school bus-size satellite's fuel tank filled with 1,000 pounds of hydrazine—which defense officials soberly described in a news release as "a hazardous fuel which could pose a danger to people on earth."
The USS Lake Erie is a warship equipped with the Navy's sophisticated Aegis weaponry, an advanced radar-based defensive system that is normally used against antiship missiles and other threats. This technology was adapted for the satellite shootdown.
In his stateroom, Hendrickson pops in a video of the missile's launch and of the ship's combat information center at the moment of impact.
The crew describes the launch sound as deafening. "You'll see the first booster falling off," Hendrickson says as he narrates the video. "It just comes right back into the ocean." Seconds later, someone calls out, "Transition! Transition!" This is the signal that the missile is about to reach its target. Those in the control room are quiet for a moment, eyes riveted to the video monitors in front of them.
"Bang!" one operator says, breaking the silence. "Yes! Yes!" shouts another, to cheers, high-fives, and pumped fists.
During a replay, Hendrickson points out where the flames shooting from the missile's afterburners have singed the ship's bell during takeoff. "We haven't shined it yet," he says. "As a reminder."
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