U.S. spy satellite debris probably too small to cause any damage on Earth

"Thus far we've seen nothing larger than a football,"... And we'll
all get to see if and where a football-sized object makes it to
earth. Exciting.
Elaine

Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080221/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/dead_satellite;_ylt=AkqiCqzH.SaObb3h3L6iOQlh24cA

Satellite debris deemed unhazardous

1 hour, 8 minutes ago

Debris from an obliterated U.S. spy satellite is being tracked over
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans but appears to be too small to cause
any damage on Earth, a senior military officer said Thursday, just
hours after a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the failing
satellite.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and an expert on military space technologies, told a Pentagon
news conference that officials have a "high degree of confidence" that
the missile launched from a Navy cruiser Wednesday night hit exactly
where intended.

He estimated there was an 80-90 percent chance that the missile struck
the most important target on the satellite -- its fuel tank, containing
1,000 pounds of hydrazine, which Pentagon officials say could have
posed a health hazard to humans if it had landed in a populated area.

Unlike most spacecraft that fall out of orbit and re-enter the
atmosphere, this satellite had an almost full fuel tank because it
lost power and became uncontrollable shortly after it reached its
initial orbit in December 2006. Cartwright said the hydrazine alone
was justification for undertaking the unprecedented effort to use a
Navy missile interceptor to attempt to destroy the satellite in orbit.

Cartwright said experts were still watching the debris fields and he
could not yet rule out that hazardous material would fall to Earth.
But he indicated that this appeared unlikely to pose a problem.

"Thus far we've seen nothing larger than a football," he said,
referring to debris spotted by radars and other sensors.

The military concluded that the missile had successfully shattered the
satellite because trackers detected a fireball, which seemed to
indicate the exploding hydrazine in the tank. Cartwright said it was
unlikely that the fireball could have been caused by anything other
than the hydrazine. Also, a vapor cloud was detected, further
suggesting the destruction of the fuel, Cartwright said.

Debris from the satellite has started re-entry and will continue
through Thursday and into Friday, Cartwright said.

The size of the debris is smaller than the Pentagon had forecast and
most of the satellite's intelligence value was likely destroyed,
Cartwright said. Though the Pentagon has played down that aspect of
the shootdown, analysts had said one of the reasons for the operation
was that officials worried that without it, larger chunks of the
satellite could fall and be recovered, opening the possibility of
secret technology falling into the hands of the Chinese or others.
________

(c) 2008 The Associated Press
.

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