The US government's official reason for shooting down the failed
satellite last year doesn't fly, say some. The blind spy
satellite may harbor more than one mystery. Last month, the
Monitor reported that Pentagon officials still do not know why a
5,000 pound US spy satellite ceased functioning shortly after
being placed in orbit in December 2006. After going blank, the
satellite slowly began losing altitude. On Feb. 20, 2008, it was
destroyed by a missile launched from a US Navy cruiser in the
Pacific Ocean. The official explanation for its destruction was
that the US wanted to prevent the toxic contents of the
spacecraft's fuel tank from harming people on the ground. But no
technical studies have ever been released to support this claim,
according to Yousaf Butt, a staff scientist in the High-Energy
Astrophysics Division at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics. The fuel was hydrazine, a substance Pentagon
officials described as similar to ammonia, in that it is deadly
when inhaled in large enough