Official says little debris created from shot satellite

The USS Lake Erie launches a Standard Missile-3 at a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite as it traveled in space at more than 17,000 mph over the Pacific Ocean February 20, 2008 in this handout photo released by the U.S. Defense Department.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The shooting apart of a crippled U.S. spy satellite last month created no significant new space debris, with all but small bits burning on re-entry to the atmosphere, the mission commander said Wednesday.

"We thought there would be much larger pieces," Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, who heads the Pentagon's Aegis ballistic missile defense program, said in the most comprehensive report yet on the destruction of the satellite known as USA-193. full story