In 1977, a Dying Russian Satellite Created Havoc for One Reason: It Was Nuclear Powered

[DemolitionMan]

by Steve Weintz
If you remember the late 1970s, you'll recall two major events: Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Popular American culture in 1978 and 1979 embraced the now-common tropes of shadowy government agencies, arrivals from space and and tiger teams responding to nuclear emergencies.

Lending credence to these pop culture tropes was a real-life Cold War incident involving crashing satellites, radioactive contamination and some of the worst weather on Earth. A near-disaster created a golden opportunity for nuclear incident response training, and still pays dividends today—while the source of the problem still lurks in our skies.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/1977-dying-russian-satellite-created-havoc-one-reason-it-was-22479

[DemolitionMan]

Kosmos 954 Reactor

[Cyber Liberty]

Interesting story, I remember when it happened.  First I'd heard of a "Graveyard Orbit," I don't think I like the sound of that.  There's a level of orbit with hundreds of nuclear cores?

[DemolitionMan]

Interesting story, I remember when it happened.  First I'd heard of a "Graveyard Orbit," I don't think I like the sound of that.  There's a level of orbit with hundreds of nuclear cores?

I found this story. You might be interested in it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-satellites-space-2016-3

[Cyber Liberty]

Thanks!  That is an interesting story.  I saw a nuclear rocket engine in a museum once.

[DemolitionMan]

Thanks!  That is an interesting story.  I saw a nuclear rocket engine in a museum once.

What ended NERVA was the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Another early idea was the US Project Orion, which would launch a substantial spacecraft - about 1000 tonnes - from the earth using a series of small nuclear explosions to propel it. The project was commenced in 1958 by General Atomics and was aborted in 1963 when the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty made it illegal, but radioactive fallout could have been a major problem. The Orion idea is still alive, as other means of generating the propulsive pulses are considered.

[Cyber Liberty]

What ended NERVA was the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Another early idea was the US Project Orion, which would launch a substantial spacecraft - about 1000 tonnes - from the earth using a series of small nuclear explosions to propel it. The project was commenced in 1958 by General Atomics and was aborted in 1963 when the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty made it illegal, but radioactive fallout could have been a major problem. The Orion idea is still alive, as other means of generating the propulsive pulses are considered.

Orion sounds like the kind of idea Teller would have come up with....

[DemolitionMan]

Orion sounds like the kind of idea Teller would have come up with....

It came from Stanisław Ulam who co-developed the hydrogen bomb. It would be a project that Teller would of been aware .

[Cyber Liberty]

It came from Stanisław Ulam who co-developed the hydrogen bomb. It would be a project that Teller would of been aware .

I think I watch too much of this stuff...lol  I know the names.