The problem with that would be that someone (some foreign country, some organization, some techno-geek-hacker, etc.) could figure out how to make it detonate itself without even needing to have the technology to send a missile up there and blow it.

In other words, that would be a serious vulnerability.

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Well, that would be a reason for a concoction. If the military can't afford an embarrassment but, as is the reality of today, can't really prevent prying eyes then it just has to "place" it outside its own ranks. That way they wouldn't care if everyone's watching an event that no one was supposed to watch.

Whatever the mission, I congratulate the crew. Good job!

Yes, but if you can can hack into the satellite's commos you don't need a bomb to take it out. Just screw with its thrusters, it'll fall down. Nice avatar.

That's correct about speed being uninhibited by atmospheric resistance in space and increasing proportionally as you descend in altitude.

This is how I calculated 17,000 miles per hour at 130 miles up to register a speed of Mach 22:

Mach Number

~17,000 mph is a common orbital velocity of geosynchronous satellites, but as far as I know there is not a missile (fastest missiles go about 10,000 mph) that can approach this speed.

It was an intercept, and so the missile had no need to match the velocity of the target. It only needed to be at the exact right place at the exact right time to intersect the trajectory. It's a precision strike that is not easy to pull off. That means the weapons system was very accurate.

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Congratulations President-Elect Obama

If a Ballistic missile were to travel as fast as a satellite then the missile would become a satellite.
Orbital velocity and all that.

Re-Entry speeds would be about the same for an ICBM and an out of control satellite.

Quick check reveals ICBM re-entry phase begins at 4 KPS= aproximately 8,948 MPH