Men with big guns

The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite that is expected to crash into earth. According to the AP:

"U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth's atmosphere."

Now isn't that exciting? It's very science fiction-y. What about the resulting satellite fragments? Will they become space trash, or will they plunge to the earth, reeking havoc and causing all sorts of problems?

One can only hope the government knows what it's doing. Firing missiles into space doesn't necessarily sound like a good idea . . .

AP: U.S. to shoot down errant satellite