The U.S. navy will use a heat-seeking missile in its attempt to destroy the malfunctioning U.S. spy satellite before it falls back on Earth.

Although the missile that the Navy intends to use wasn’t build for this kind of operations, the satellite which is now in Earth’s orbit will be targeted on Wednesday night. The shoot down was already approved by President Bush, despite the fact that some see this as something that will bring a lack of clarity in the lines between defending against a weapon like a long-range missile and targeting satellites in orbit.

The failing satellite is falling from the orbit and has 1,000 pounds of toxic rocket fuel aboard.

The missile to be used by the Navy in this situation, the SM-3, has had a high success rate since the testes began in 2002. However, in those tests, the SM-3 had targeted a short- or medium-range ballistic missile, but never a satellite.

The warships equipped with Aegis radar systems have recorded a higher success rate than the costlier land-based system of interceptor missiles in Alaska and California. In the lat eight years of tests, the warships hit 12 targets in 14 Pacific Ocean attempts.

However, the Navy officials acknowledged that bringing down a satellite will be much harder due to the fact that the satellite is traveling with a higher speed a, at a higher altitude and it’s colder than the enemy missiles the system was built to hit.

"We're looking at a cold body in space, a body that has been shut down for some time, and so it doesn't have the traditional heating that a ballistic missile has," said a Navy official.

The program for the mission to shoot down the failing spy satellite was completed in just a few weeks and the changes made will be reversed after the completion, the Navy officials said.

According to the sayings of Pentagon officials, today, the space shuttle Atlantis will land in Florida thus marking the beginning of a nearly weeklong window to shoot down the satellite. The shoot down attempt may come just hours after Atlantis lands.

Federal officials issued a warning to all ships and aircrafts on Tuesday advising them to avoid the north Pacific test area today, said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. However, he added that a final decision about the exact time when the shot should be made wasn’t taken yet.

"If a shot is not taken within the 24 hours after that notice went out, there will likely be another [notice] that goes out," he said.