CORRECTION POSTED FEB. 6, 2008: The article below misidentifies the manufacturer of a failing National Reconnaissance Office satellite. The classified spacecraft, which is expected to reenter the atmosphere by March, was not built by Boeing. We regret the error and any resulting implications.

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The Boeing-National Reconnaissance Office imaging radar spacecraft that failed shortly after launch creating a falling debris risk indicates that trouble within the NRO Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program has spread to the radar side of the highly secret project.

The debris could impact anywhere between 58.5 deg. N. and S. Lat. in late February or early March.

Some analysts believe the debris could reveal national security secrets if not recovered by members of the NRO/Pentagon teams being formed to travel to the impact area should it land on North America or other friendly territory.

Others more familiar with the actual hardware do not believe, however, that the debris will poses a security risk. Air Force Gen. Victor E. (Gene) Renuart, Jr., who heads U.S. Northern Command, told the Associated Press that there does not yet appear to be much concern about sensitive technologies on the satellite falling into enemy hands. “I’m not aware that we have a security issue,” he says. “It’s really just a big thing falling that we want to make sure we’re prepared for.”

Reentry debris analysis from the space shuttle Columbia accident is being applied to Pentagon assessments on how much of the failed NROL-21 imaging radar will survive reentry and strike Earth.

The Defense Dept. and especially the U.S. Northern Command have been forming debris recovery teams and making other preparations for months, ever since the spacecraft failed minutes after launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Dec. 14, 2006, on a United Launch Alliance Delta II.

This week marks the fifth anniversary of intensive Columbia debris recovery, mostly in Texas, following the Feb. 1, 2003, reentry accident that resulted in the loss of the orbiter and its seven-member U.S.-Israeli crew. The resulting debris has been made available to researchers over the last several years for analysis into the types and amounts of spacecraft materials that can survive reentry and strike the ground. That data is now being used operationally for the first time by the Pentagon, NASA and NRO analysts to better calculate how much debris will plunge through the atmosphere.

From a U.S. reconnaissance standpoint, the FIA optical recon program was rife with problems long before the FIA radar development satellite failed.