Honolulu - The U.S. war ship “Lake Erie” blasted a disabled spy satellite with a tactical SM-3 missile, which exactly strikes the school bus-sized satellite that was traveling at a speed of more than 7000 miles per hour. It had attained the ultimate target of exploding a tank of toxic hydrazine fuel at a height of 133 nautical miles above the Pacific Ocean, said the defense officials.

Demolishing the satellite’s hazardous fuel tank containing 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, said a senior defense official on Thursday. He said it seems that the tank was totally demolished, and the pinpoint strike with a specially designed missile was an absolute success.

Many international leaders had protested against this as they see this incident as a thinly disguised attempt to test an anti-satellite weapon — one that could destroy rival country’s spy satellite and orbiting communications.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. “China is always having a watchful eye over the possible harm that was created by U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries.”

The Pentagon officials emphasized that the satellite strike was a one-time incident, it will definitely follow-up enormous amounts of data and research that can be studied by the military as it exerts maximum efforts to enhance its missile defense technologies.

After striking the satellite, Pentagon said, “Confirmation regarding the fragmentation of fuel tank will be available within 24 hours.” But after a short time the defense officials had disclosed that they had hit the fuel tank.

As the satellite was traveling at a low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, the remains will begin to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.

“Almost all the remains will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days,” it said.

The missile used for this project alone cost nearly $10 million, and it is estimated that the total cost of the project was at least $30 million.

Both China and Russia had expressed their concerns regarding the shoot down by saying that it could destroy the outer space security.

President Bush had already gave approval last week for the shooting down of missile, deciding that it was important to demolish the toxic fuel to prevent any possible injuries if the satellite fall down in a populated area.

If the satellite was left alone, it would have hit the Earth during the first week of March.

The Russian defense ministry said that it looks like an indirect weapons test and an attempt to move the weapons race into space.

US officials told that the aim was to prevent potential risk to humans from the de-orbiting satellite, and not to test an anti-satellite weapon.

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