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Missile that shot down dead spy satellite completed in Camden Friday, Feb 22, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The missile fired by the U.S. Navy to shoot down a dead U.S. spy satellite orbiting the earth had its final assembly and testing done in Camden, a Raytheon spokeswoman said Thursday. Raytheon's Camden facility does the final assembly and testing for the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), which hit the errant satellite Wednesday night. "The missile was never designed to engage a satellite," said Corinne Kovalsky, Raytheon's public relations director. "Much engineering and technical expertise made this one-time mission possible, with Raytheon engineers working closely with our customers throughout the operation." The missile was launched from the U.S. Navy's USS Lake Erie off Hawaii at 9:30 p.m. CST. News of the missile's Arkansas ties drew cheers at the first Arkansas Aerospace summit, which took place in multiple locations statewide that were linked together by the Internet. The missile hit the satellite at a combined speed of 22,000 mph about 130 miles above the Earth's surface, according to Marine Gen. James Cartwright. The bus-sized satellite lost power shortly after reaching orbit in late 2006. President Bush approved its destruction by missile, citing concerns about a potential health hazard if the satellite returned to Earth intact. |
