The Window is Open, but the door is closing

Pentagon: Window Open to Shootdown Spy Satellite


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says the window of opportunity is now open for it to try to shoot down a failing spy satellite.

The Navy is planning to hit the satellite with a heat-seeking missile as early as Wednesday night. But officials were waiting for the space shuttle Atlantis to return to Earth so it would not be hit by falling debris.

"We're now into the window,'' a senior defense official told a Pentagon press conference after the shuttle landed.

The attempted shootdown was approved by President Bush out of concern that toxic fuel on board the satellite could crash to earth.