U.S. could shoot down satellite overnight Wednesday

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy may make its first attempt to shoot down an errant spy satellite loaded with toxic fuel overnight on Wednesday in an area of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii, according to U.S. officials and government documents.

A notice to mariners broadcast by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency warned of "hazardous operations" in the area between 9:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday and midnight EST on Thursday.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a similar notice to airmen.

Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the notices were intended to clear the area of shipping and air traffic during what could be an initial attempt to down the bus-sized satellite from a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters no decision about when to attempt the shootdown has yet been made.

But he said the first attempt would follow the scheduled landing of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday at 9:06 a.m. EST.

"The window of opportunity ... opens as soon as the shuttle is safely on the ground. At that point, we begin to look at when is the best time to take a shot to bring down this dying satellite," he said at a Pentagon briefing.

A Navy official said the satellite poses several challenges for U.S. ballistic missile defense because it is traveling far faster than the targets the system was designed to attack and will provide less of a heat target for infrared sensors.