Washington - The US military is confident the fuel tank aboard a satellite that was the target of a missile strike was destroyed, a top US officer said Thursday. Marine General William Cartwright said the Pentagon said a vapor cloud after the missile hit the satellite provided a "high degree of confidence" that the tank carrying a toxic fuel had been ruptured.
Cartwright said it will take up to two days to determined the full result of the hit.
The US Navy successfully hit a failed spy satellite with a missile fired late Wednesday by a warship in the Pacific Ocean.
The mission was carried out over concerns the hydrazine fuel on the satellite could have been a danger to human if the spacecraft re- entered Earth's atmosphere.
The USS Lake Erie near Hawaii fired an unarmed missile at 10:26 pm Wednesday (0326 GMT Thursday) that collided at a speed of 27,000 kilometres per hour with the satellite at an altitude of 247 kilometres above the Pacific.
