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Cost of shooting down a spy satellite: $60m. Look on Alien's face when the missile hits: priceless.


Sure, it seemed like the Pentagon had things wrapped up when they told us that they'd be aiming their rockets skyward and blasting that pesky zombie-spore and / or Alien-carrying satellite out of the sky. Of course, they failed to tell us the price: sixty million dollars. What seemed at first to be a simple game of Missile Command has become an extensive military operation, involving modified rockets and control systems, hundreds of industry experts and scientists, as well as the Aegis sea-defense cruiser accompanied by two destroyers. The Navy will wait until the space shuttle lands next Wednesday before beginning operations, and they say they're fully prepared to bring W.O.P.R. online if anything goes wrong. The kicker? They'll probably miss.

[Thanks, Laura]

Update: Apparently Russia is calling the whole operation a cover for the US government to test out a new anti-sat tactical missile system. Ok, we wouldn't rule that option out, but it's not like the concept of shooting down satellites is so revolutionary, right? We mean, haven't governments been capable of blowing up satellites for decades, now? Thanks, Mukul.