The USS Lake Erie scored a direct hit at 10:26pm ET last night on the failing spy satellite, leaving little else behind but pieces "nothing larger than a football," Pentagon officials said today.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an expert on military space technologies, said the government has a "high degree of confidence" that the missile launched last night hit exactly where intended.

But forget all that, we all want to see the satellite go boom. Sure, the video is a little grainy, but Cartwright is kind enough to slow down the footage so we get the full "impact" (ha! get it?).

[via Engadget]

Watch the video after the jump...

As you probably already know by now, the US Navy is preparing to shoot down a rogue spy satellite - the event is scheduled to occur tonight at 10:30pm ET from warships located just west of Hawaii.

The satellite, known as USA-193 or NROL-21, is set to be hit by a $10 million missile - breaking it into lots of teeny-tiny pieces thanks to the 22,000 mph impact. The full tank of hydrazine fuel is hoped to explode upon impact.

And it's that 1,000lbs of frozen, toxic hydrazine fuel that's the whole reason she's getting shot out of the sky to begin with. We really don't need those deadly fumes spread over an area of two football fields. Hydrazine is similar to chlorine or ammonia in that it affects the lungs and breathing tissue.

The first shot will be fired by Aegis missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, with the USS Decatur destroyer waiting as backup just in case that first shot misses. Considering the target is 150 miles up, and they have a 10-second window to hit their mark, that's not a bad idea.

Hopefully, all that debris will burn up in the atmosphere and we'll live happily ever after. According to SatNews, over the past 50 years or so, approximately 17,000 man-made objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere—no one has ever been hurt by this falling debris.

Though one veteran satellite-watcher was a little startled when he realized the debris cloud would go across central Canada on it's ascending pass a few minutes after impact. After that, it'll go across a bit of western Africa and eastern Australia.

Check out the debris cloud plot after the jump...

Who needs seasonally overpriced flowers, blood diamonds or lead-ridden confectionery to show that special someone that you care? Skip out on all that and send an XM Lovebear instead.

Because nothing says "I love you" better than unabashed corporate advertising.

Thanks XM81FAN!

Since we normally don't get to see how popular Sirius is on a state-by-state basis, the guys over at TSS Radio decided to put together their own comparison using their own sales data.

Now, TSS Radio is one of the leading online Sirius retailers, so this gives us a pretty good look at how Sirius' numbers are according to region... well, at least for online buyers.

But these guys took it even further, and showed the ratio of Sirius' popularity compared to each state's population. Then they used their internal numbers and extrapolated the data to derive an estimated number of subscribers in each state. If that wasn't enough, they wrapped it all together into a neato interactive map.

It's definitely not a scientific "study" - and they're very clear to point out that this is just for fun - but worth checking out just to how your own state stacks up. Full Disclosure: TSS Radio is a sponsor of Orbitcast, but I'd still link to this even if they weren't... simply because it's cool.

[TSS Radio]

I'm still plowing through all the stuff from CES, and I definitely don't want this one to slip through the cracks.

This was, by far, the most badass car equipped with Sirius at the show.

See the rest of the photos after the jump...

Below are the top 20 Orbitcast posts from 2007 in terms of unique visits to each article page. I'm not saying that these are the "best of" Orbitcast posts - hardly - just the ones that garnered the most attention around the interweb.

So without further adieu, the winners (in order) are:

1. Audio: Opie & Anthony comments that caused XM suspension
2. XM subscribers backlash over O&A suspension
3. Sirius renews contract with Bubba the Love Sponge
4. 25 years of music from The Howard Stern Show
5. OFFICIAL: Sirius and XM Announce Merger
6. Sirius Beats 6 Million Subscribers and First Cash-Flow Positive Quarter
7. CES: SiriusConnect SC-V1 Audio/Video Tuner (Sirius Backseat TV)
8. New Pioneer AVIC-D3 Unveiled
9. Sponsors pull advertising over O&A suspension
10. Did Opie & Anthony cross the line with Condi Rice?
11. Howard Stern engaged to Beth O
12. Not just Sirius: Bubba returns to Regular Radio
13. XM-Sirius Merger Plans to be Announced Today?
14. BREAKING: Is XM down?
15. BREAKING: XM suspends Opie and Anthony
16. CES: Bushnell ONIX 400 Weather Tracker
17. Report: DoJ Antitrust Chief to approve merger
18. Penny Crone, George Flowers Leave Howard 100 News
19. CES: XM's New Mini-Tuner Car Stereos
20. Arbitron ratings for Satellite Radio

It's amazing when you look back. All the crazy events that occured in such a short amount of time. For an industry that - in the grand scheme of things - is relatively small, satellite radio sure has its fair share of stories to tell.

Happy New Year everyone! See you "next year" (yuk yuk).

Back by popular demand, the XM Holiday Card Generator has returned. Headless snowman and all.

Spread the joy.

Long-time Orbitcast reader The Squeaky Wheel is hosting his own internet radio show today and I figured I'd drop by (virtually) and hang out for a bit.

Quite honestly, I'm considering launching "Orbitcast Radio" as a regular weekly show myself, so this could be a nice test run to see how the service would work out. Would "Orbitcast Radio" be something that you folks would be interested in? I'm hardly a 'radio guy' so this would definitely be new territory ventured for me.

Anyway, here's a link to his blog post on Bearing Drift Ohio, and here's a direct link to the show. This is a live show, so you can even call in and participate if you're so inspired (part of the reason why I'm considering doing this myself). The dial-in number is (646) 716-9244 and the show starts off at 2pm ET.

Listen in if you get the chance.

[Bearing Drift Ohio]

...and here is just one of the many examples why.