Pacific Ocean, February 20, 2008Billows of fire mark the launch of an antimissile rocket from the deck of the U.S. Navy cruiser U.S.S. Lake Erie in the seas northwest of Hawaii.

Military officials dispatched the modified missile to destroy a defunct spy satellite that had fallen from its orbit and was due to crash into Earth.

U.S. authorities said the satellite posed a threat due to its load of toxic rocket fuel. But critics charged that the environmental risk was minimal and suggested that the maneuver was intended as a display of military technology.

On February 21, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the satellite had been successfully destroyed and the remaining debris posed little or no threat.

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