The U.S. Department of Defense says it successfully hit its wayward spy satellite with a single missile Wednesday night.

The Pentagon says it hit the satellite with the first missile it fired from the Navy ship USS Lake Erie. It says it will not know for up to 24 hours whether the missile hit the satellite's fuel tank, which was the target of the missile.

Officials said that debris from the satellite would reenter the atmosphere after the craft was hit, but that almost all of it should burn up in the atmosphere.