Missile Defense Shoots Down Toxic Satellite Mitigating Risk to Human Life

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, President of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (http://www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org) let the worldwide membership of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance know that our Navy's Aegis missile defense system was successful in its fist try with a SM-3 in the shoot down of the failing US 193 satellite. Extracts of his comments follow:

"Global protection of human life from Space was proven, demonstrated and executed tonight by the use of our country's missile defense technology and her current deployed missile defense systems -- the Aegis USS Lake Erie (CG 70). This historic intercept of a toxic satellite falling from space, harmful to human life around the world has given mankind its first ever reliable deployed capability to protect life from objects falling from space."

"The investment, the political will, the engineering ingenuity, the determination of our public, our Congress, our military and our President to develop and deploy a system that was created by American Industry and the military, proven through vigorous testing, deployed on sea and land-based platforms and adaptable to provide an accurate pin point precision defense of hitting an object in space is truly a remarkable historic feat."

"The factual reality of using deployed missile defenses to destroy a falling satellite or a ballistic missile or even a meteor from space that would risk human life is an achievement for mankind."

"Missile Defense will continue to become more and more universal throughout the world and it will become more reliable and effective, so as to one day in the near future, we as a world can eliminate and mitigate risk from any and all harmful objects coming from space that would threaten mankind."

"The intercept of the Satellite US 193 occurred at 10:26 PM EST on Wednesday in the Pacific Ocean off of Hawaii. A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) was fired a few minutes earlier off the USS Lake Erie using information fed by the ship's on board Aegis radar tracking and discrimination sensor to guide the missile close to the falling satellite where the missile engaged its heat seeking sensor thereby enabling a direct perpendicular hit on the 5,000 lb satellite with a kinetic energy impact of 22,000 mph. The satellite was destroyed at 10:26 PM EST. The majority of the small pieces of the satellite will burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry whereby the bigger pieces will fall harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean in the first 48 hours, and the remaining pieces will re-enter the atmosphere over the next month."

"The Sea Based X band radar was deployed in the area to support independently the discrimination and tracking of the destroyed Satellite. Other US military sensors and satellites were deployed in the area and were also used for evaluation of the intercept." "The Aegis Destroyer USS Decatur (DDG-73) accompanied the USS Lake Erie in this mission as a redundant back up with a capable SM-3 missile of its own as well as a duplicate Aegis sensor and radar." Ellison closed his remarks by saying: "We as a nation have made the world a safer place for our generation and generations to come."

Riki Ellison is available for on-the-record interviews at 571 213-3328 or call Mike Terrill at 602 885-1955 if assistance is needed.