Star Wars

The US is set to shoot down a broken spy satellite. This all follows last year's action by China, which fired a missile at one of its old weather satellite. The destruction of the Chinese satellite produced about 28% of the debris that is now in orbit, which poses a major threat to functioning satellites. In contrast the US plans to destroy their satellite as it reenters the atmosphere, allowing the fragments to burn up on their descent. Satellites leaving orbit and entering the earth's atmosphere is not uncommon, but military officials say that this case is being given special consideration due to hazardous materials on board.