High seas could delay Navy's attempt to shoot down U.S. satellite

WASHINGTON — High seas in the north Pacific may force the Navy to wait another day before launching a heat-seeking missile on a mission to shoot down a wayward U.S. spy satellite, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Weather conditions are one of many factors that U.S. military officers are taking into account as they decide whether to proceed with the mission Wednesday or to put it off, according to a senior military officer who briefed reporters at the Pentagon on condition that he not be identified.

The officer said the assumption had been that the mission would go forward Wednesday night, unless conditions are determined to be unfavorable. Earlier in the day, bad weather in the north Pacific was causing rough seas, which may be a problem for the USS Lake Erie, a cruiser armed with two SM-3 missiles.

"We don't anticipate the weather being good enough today," the officer said, adding that conditions could improve enough in the hours ahead to permit it to go forward. A final decision would be made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Alluding to the high seas and strong winds, the officer added, "It has not been enough for us to say 'no"' and put the launch mission off until Thursday. But it would take improved conditions to proceed.

The Pentagon had been waiting until the space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth before launching the missile.

"We're now into the window," the senior military officer said minutes after the shuttle landed at 9:07 a.m. EST.

He said the mission could go forward on any day until Feb. 29, when the satellite is projected to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, making it infeasible to attempt to hit it with the Navy missile.

Officers have hours in which to monitor a long checklist of technical factors and conditions before deciding whether to proceed with the missile launch. But the period in which the missile must launch in order to have an optimum chance of success against the satellite is only "a matter of seconds," the senior military officer said.

The attempted shootdown was approved by President Bush last week out of concern that toxic fuel on board the satellite could crash to earth and potentially harm humans, the Defense Department has said.

Officials will know within minutes of the SM-3 missile launch whether the missile has hit the satellite, but it will take a day or two to know whether the fuel tank has been destroyed, officials said.