That upcoming shoot-out of an errant classified spy satellite by an Earth-based missile has all the makings of a high drama sci-fi movie - a touch of Armageddon and a dash of Ice Station Zebra.

The out-of-control imaging spacecraft — USA 193 — was lofted for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in December 2006. The super-secret satellite conked out shortly after reaching orbit.

At a U.S. Department of Defense briefing yesterday, officials spotlighted the chances of the satellite’s batch of unused, now frozen, hydrazine making it to terra firma. Nasty stuff for sure.

But the global coordination in dealing with incoming hydrazine struck me as possible lessons learned for confronting an incoming asteroid too.

Then there’s the secret spacecraft leftovers post-destruction or — given missile misses — hefty chunks of reentering debris making it to the ground. Officials said yesterday, satellite secrets falling into unfriendly hands wasn’t an issue.

Military space writer and historian, Dwayne Day, notes in an upcoming issue of The Space Review, that this is not the first time a U.S. spysat has come down in an “unplanned” manner. Some 44 years ago, he writes, classified hardware from Corona mission 1005 fell on a farm and was picked up in the rural region of the Andes Mountains. Also, pieces of a NRO satellite were apparently recovered in England some years ago, he explains.

If you want to dive into this satellite shooting gallery spectacle, take a read of this transcript from the defense briefing. Go to:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4145