A piece of space junk destroyed the final stage of a ballistic missile in
January during routine tests of the US military鈥檚 missile defence system.
The 5-metre rocket booster, which had been jettisoned after deploying dummy
warheads, collided with the debris about 390 kilometres above the Pacific as it
fell towards the atmosphere. Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Lehner of the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization says: 鈥淚鈥檝e been in missiles for going on 20 years,
and I鈥檝e never seen it happen before.鈥�