U.S. shot raises tensions, worries over satellites

By Jim Wolf - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The shot that slammed into a crippled U.S. spy satellite Wednesday has raised fears of a new arms race in the heavens and increased tensions on Earth.

Thirteen months after China destroyed an aging satellite with a missile, the operation also added to concerns about disruption of space assets vital for 21st-century global commerce and security.

The craft was hit 247 kms (153 miles) over the Pacific, the Pentagon said, using arms designed for the ship-based leg of a multibillion-dollar shield against missiles that could be tipped with chemical, germ or nuclear warheads.

The Bush administration has insisted it was not trying to demonstrate anti-satellite capabilities of the Lockheed Martin Corp "Aegis" ballistic missile defense -- though experts said the effect was just that.

The administration said its goal was to protect populated areas from the spacecraft's unused supply of deadly hydrazine propellant -- an explanation many called unpersuasive.

The Pentagon said on Thursday it was very confident it had hit the fuel tank. The 5,000-pound (2,270 kg) satellite was struck by a Raytheon Co Standard Missile-3 fired from the USS Lake Erie northwest of Hawaii, the Pentagon said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, responding to Chinese criticism of the event, said in Honolulu the United States "certainly would be prepared to share" resultant data with Beijing -- "whatever appropriately we can."

The operation marked the first time the U.S. missile defense system has been tweaked to aim for a satellite, although the United States and the Soviet Union conducted anti-satellite tests during the Cold War.

"It does not take an arms race to mess up space," said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan public policy group in Washington. "All it takes is a few destructive anti-satellite tests."

STRONG CRITICISM

China drew strong criticism from the United States and others after it fired a ground-based missile at one of its weather satellites last year in the first anti-satellite test since Washington and Moscow halted theirs more than 20 years ago.

The January 12, 2007, Chinese test occurred at 850 kms, close to orbits crowded with functioning satellites. Tens of thousands of debris bits were created instantly, some of which may complicate space operations for decades if not centuries, experts say.

Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's chief weapons tester under former President Bill Clinton, said he suspected one of the unstated U.S. goals on Wednesday was to strut an ability to shoot down a satellite from any ocean on earth.

"It was a bad idea," he said. "It will make it easier for other countries to justify shooting down satellites for whatever supposed reason, thereby increasing the likelihood of an arms race in space."

"I'll bet you a dinner that the Russians will do it next," he added in an E-mail interview.