I saw this video of the satellite that was shot out of space by the US missile. It is pretty cool that they got video.

http://www.space.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=080221-satellite-kill

I've seen several video's of it. Still amazes we can hit a object so far away like that.

It was only a little over a hundred miles away, considering they can hit the window of a building a thousand miles away that distance is nothing. Of course the building isn't moving at 5 miles per second. That is what is amazing that they can something moving that fast.

Note they didn't shoot down the satellite, they just broke it up. Five myths about the satellite smash-up

Although I don't doubt the validity of the fuel being harmful if it had reached the earth, I'm pretty sure the US Military wanted to show a few countries that we are very capable of hitting something in space at great speed with accuracy. I doubt the Navy said they didn't want to do it.

Now let's throw an ammo can up there and see if they can hit that

quote:

Originally posted by AllenLacy:
That is what is amazing that they can (shoot) something moving that fast.

Which leads to the point of my post... that they can track something moving that fast from earth at that distance with a camera and capture the moment of impact. The more recent images of space shuttle lift-offs also highlights this video tracking technology. Amazing stuff.

Of course since it is/was a satellite they knew exactly where it was going to be. It will be harder to hit some thing like a missile.