Taking Aim at the Spy Satellite

Atlantis Commander Steve Frick will be watching to see if Navy mission succeeds. "Go Navy," Frick told ABC News in an interview from onboard the space shuttle. "My pilot Alan Poindexter and I are both Navy guys and we are very interested in seeing how it goes."

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Why Now?

The Pentagon has an eight-day window, beginning last Sunday, for shooting down the wayward satellite.

The Defense Department says the purpose of the shootdown is prevent chunks of the 5,000 pound satellite or any of its highly toxic fuel from raining down on cities or towns. But the $74 million mission has been dogged by doubts that the satellite poses any real danger, and that the true purpose is to test the Pentagon's ability to hit an enemy's satellite. The Pentagon denies that the attempted shootdown is a camouflaged weapons test.

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Hiding in Plain Sight: Spy Satellite Visible

When China used a missile to obliterate one of its own satellites last year, the U.S. protested, claiming the shards from the blasted satellite would pose a hazard to the International Space Station. That satellite was 500 miles above the Earth.

When the U.S. satellite-seeking missile is launched, the space station will still be orbiting Earth.

"I think NASA and the Defense Department love the station crew as much as they love the Atlantis crew," space station Commander Peggy Whitson joked.

The planned hit will take place when the satellite is orbiting just above Earth's atmosphere, so that most of the debris from the missile's destruction would fall out of orbit in just a few days, rather than continuing to orbit in space where it could be a hazard to the International Space Station and future shuttle flights.

If any debris does get close to the space station, flight controllers will move the orbiting outpost out of the way. They have done so six times in the space station's 10 years in orbit.