US Satellite Shoot a Screen for Space War Games: Russia

Russia's not buying the US military's story that it must shoot down an errant spy satellite before it crashes to Earth with its load of toxic fuel, the BBC reports. The Kremlin says America is using the incident as an excuse to test a new generation of space weaponry and its "capability to destroy other countries' satellites."

The "decision to destroy the American satellite does not look harmless as they try to claim," said a Russian defense ministry spokesman. "Such testing essentially means the creation of a new type of strategic weapon." Other satellites have crashed to Earth in the past, but this is the first to warrant such "extraordinary measures," he said. (More satellite stories.)