U.S. Spy Satellite destruction simulation

AGI has published a fascinating simulation of the destruction of the failing U.S. Spy Satellite by an SM-3 missile. The site contains quite a few screenshots, in addition to a low-res video. A hi-res video can be obtained by request.

The computer-generated video, which can be previewed below, depicts a notional deployment of U.S Navy ships in the Northern Pacific firing an SM-3 missile at the failed satellite and successfully intercepting it. To create the animation, AGI used its debris modeling and prediction software to show where the debris could go based on statistical breakup models, which simulate debris generation using distributions of mass, area, material density, velocity, and magnitude. The analysis shows that as the debris (green dots) orbits, much of it starts to “fall out” of orbit and burn up upon re-entry (red dots).

This is really interesting stuff. I don’t remember anything quite like this being released to the public before, although I could be wrong.