Original story This falls under the category of theoretically possible, but I doubt they can pull it off.
that would be a much better option, and everyone knows it. They just want to test out their Anti-Satellite weapons like china did a few months ago.
politics aside, the logistics of getting someone up there to do that would be immense, a shuttle launch, the ISS needs supplies and parts still, so the shuttle is tied up in that.
THis thing is going to spatter in something like two weeks, so there is no time to put together a mission to do something about it. Honestly, I'm not sure if the 137 lb controlled fragmentation warhead on an SM3 will really do much to a 5000 lb satellite, but it should be interesting to watch.
The standard missle III isn't an anti-satellite. It's anti-ballistic missle. We (the Americans) have a dedicated anti-satellite missle, have since the late '80s. It's a kenetic kill warhead though, not intended to bring a satellite down from orbit. This satellite is in a decaying orbit and we need to break it up enough to get the big pieces to burn up while minimizing the amount of debris left in orbit. This isn't a concern in a kenetic kill warhead, since you just want to shut down the spacecraft. You don't really worry about the fuel or debris.
The SM3 isn't even really an anti-ballistic missle. Like the Patriot, it's a long range anti-aircraft missle that has been coopted into the ABM role with limited success. The original intention of the SM3 design was to provide the fleet with a very long range weapon to attack cruise missle carrying aircraft before they could launch their missles. That said, the SM3 is now part of the US "missle shield" intended to bring down strategic warheads in the mid-course phase of flight and so the profile of this satellite as a target is somewhat similar to that of an incoming warhead. If they can hit the satellite, fine. If not, how do they expect to hit a warhead 1/10th the size moving significantly faster with a weapon designed to hit subsonic bombers?
Of course they do. There is no reason to shoot down the satellite. The stated concern is that it might release 'toxic gasses' on impact --namely the hydrazine that powers the thrusters. Now the thing about hydrazine is, it is very flammable (as rocket fuel is supposed to be). The thing about re-entry into the atmosphere at orbital decay velocity is, it is very, very hot. Get the picture yet? That satellite is going to be a fireball as soon as it hits the upper atmosphere. There is no significant risk.
i believe Nexxo works for Relix. I hope all the debris burns up on re-entry But since when do satellites fall down? Why wont this thing just stay in orbit? And if you blow up a satelitte in orbit, then the debris would just spread in all directions from the force of the explosion right? But this thing isn't in orbit, right? I guess they "unintentionally" "lost control" during "routine manevours", which is why it's currently on course for earth? Yeah, that's right, another bloody conspiracy theory - bad luck, sue me I wonder what part of the world the satelitte/debris is headed for? Nevada Maybe? They wouldn't want this secret spy tech debris falling into enemy hands!
The satellite won't completely burn up, far from it in fact and the part that is most heavily shielded (for obvious reasons) is the fuel tank. Add that to the fact that oxygen is needed for the fuel to burn (there is no oxygen in the fuel tank) and you come to realise that its actually the most likely part to survive and it will only be a hazard once it hits the earth when the fuel tank could rupture. Ideally an orbit is permanent but there are always going to be disturbances that alter the orbit slightly and so all satellites need boosters to occasionally adjust their orbit. Once they have run out of fuel most satellites stay close enough to their original orbit that it isn't an issue but it had to happen eventually and with the increasing number of dead satellites in space it is only going to happen more and more frequently.
So what goes up really has to come back down? damn Expensive options, retrival, or weapon development, or sending the dead satellites to the sun - the only cheap option is to let them burn up on re-entry, but apparently they don't burn up that easy? Developing new weapons to take them out sufficiently is probably the cheapest?