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Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II
Not really. That satellite was de-orbiting for some time. It'll have made little difference - knocked further below its orbital speed, the satellite will be headed for Earth in very short order no matter what altitude of orbit it is in.
Two possibilities:
1) The shot altitude was chosen to fit the capabilities of the SM-3.
2) Of course, the possibility that can never be disproven: Deception by deliberately shooting under your capabilities.
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You are correct, but it was publically stated that the window was used because the debris would fall within a week later. The window extended till March 1st. As of March 1st, the sat would be skipping off the upper atmosphere making its plunge to Earth unpredictable and uncontrolled. This shot has apparently been ready since early Jan but the decision to wait was made to let the sat get into a position that would let its debris fall shortly after. Higher and you create hazard.
It doesn't take rocket science (or maybe it does, but maybe I have a better understanding than I think) to figure out that if you can achieve Mach 10 in a pure ballistic profile (remember this is also a kinetic profile and I believe Mach 7 is the key if I remember my physics correctly) and break atmosphere while doing it (The space shuttle does not use a pure ballistic profile by the way since it is trying to achieve orbit), its a joke from that point on to reach almost any altitude that you dare want from that point on. You are basically above the majority of Earths gravitation pull. So don't fool yourself for a second that going higher is not possible. It is not only possible, much much higher is way more than possible to the point you can probably can even achieve an alt of pure geosynchronous orbit and kill a sat there if you wanted to and even go farther.
-S