February 20, 2008
The Navy successfully shoots down with a missile an errant satellite 133 miles above the earth. DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) assists the Navy using its Red Storm supercomputer, located at its Sandia National Laboratories. For about two months, NNSA diverted Red Storm and its technical experts and codes to the secret project to simulate, assess, and plan the complex mission. All 26,569 processors were used on Red Storm to perform complex simulations that allowed NNSA's technical experts to predict various details and possibilities. The work helped answer many questions, such as at what altitude to hit the satellite, how to hit it to minimize the spread of debris, including its hazardous fuel, and the best way to make sure that the satellite was destroyed with a single shot.