Remember when the Chinese were shooting down that satellite and the big argument was over whether they were polluting the earth's orbit with dangerous space junk? I wonder why we're not hearing the same argument here.
Because this one is already on its way down, and so the debris is unlikely to remain in orbit.
They want to shoot it for two reasons that I can see:
1) to prevent China/Russia/anyone from getting their hands on
sensitive technology that might be onboard, and
2) to make it more likely to just
burn up on reentry, rather than poke a hole in the roof of the White House.
Cheers
To expand somewhat on what Mark is saying:
The altitude is the biggest difference between the two shots. There was an article somewhere yesterday (it was in the consolidated group of 'you might be interested in' articles I get at work) that compared the altitudes of the two satellites. The Chinese one was at a high altitude (537 mi) orbit, while US-193 is already in a degrading orbit between 160-167 mi. They expect most of the pieces to enter the atmosphere (and burn up rather than strike the ground) within five days.
Some people are concerned about the sensitive technology. This was a NRO satellite, so there is some ridiculously classified equipment on it. Any time you start dealing with sensors or communications, countries will go through a
lot of trouble to protect that technology.
The other concern is hydrazine. The tanks are big and bulky and may survive re-entry. The stuff is nasty. If it doesn't kill you, it can still cause seizures and comas and damage your liver, kidneys and nervous system. Destroying those tanks greatly increases the chances that the pieces will burn up on re-entry and not pose a threat to anybody.
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