No, really, we did it to save you

Okay, so the U.S. Navy just blew up an orbiting satellite (one of ours) with a missile fired from the USS Erie, bobbing around in the ocean.  Satellite going 17,000 mph, missile going 5,000 mph, missile 140 miles up, and the size of a bus - nice shot.

The satellile was falling to earth and had a tank of toxic fuel aboard, so the Navy was worried it would end up hitting a populated area and harm folks living there, so they blew it up.

Now the fun part starts.  If this weren't the era of the internet the story would pretty much stop there- which was pretty much the full content of the AP story, but no, thanks to lots of people who know bits and pieces about lots of things, and care about such things, and the interent we get a different story.

What the best of the internet has to offer so far.

1.  It was a spy satellite
2.  The chances that it would hit anything or anyone were slim to nill
3.  The government had organized a number of hazardous materials teams, under a cool code name 'Burnt Frost' to be flown anywhere in the world to take care of the sensitive debris.
4.  In addition to the guys in white suits there were six additional federal response groups positioned across the country - alerted but not activated.
5.  President Bush himself made the final call
6.  The hazardous material - frozen fuel aboard the satellite would probably have burnt up on entry.  In the remote possibility that it didn't, it would almost certainly have landed somewhere remote.  On the also remote chance that it landed in a populated area, it would have contaminated an area the size of two football fields with stuff like ammonia.
7.  The cost of the shot?  $60 million.

So why spend this kind of money, send teams all over the planet, and blow up something that would probably have burnt itself up on reentry?

Current conclusion by the blogging world?  Probably something aboard the satellite that the gov didn't want to get in the hands of others - and why not just show the world that we're top dog in the old blow stuff up anywhere department.

Be fun to see this story over the next few days...oh, and in case you don't know about fark.com here's their headline, which you've got to love:

US Military successfully shoots down satellite containing the Ark of the Covenant, the actual JFK assassination documents, and that secret baked bean recipe the dog was supposed to guard.