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The Time Uranium Rained From The Sky and Caused An International Crisis
The Kosmos 954 Incident
On September 8th, 1977, a Tsyklon-2 rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Union. The rocket was carrying a satellite with a benign sounding name — Kosmos 954. The launch was unremarkable. The USSR had been sending satellites into space since the 1950s, and Westerners had long stopped paying attention to such launches. The rocket didn’t explode on the pad and it wasn’t carrying anything new or scary. Therefore most people went about their days with no knowledge that anything had happened.
What most people didn't know was that Kosmos 954, one of dozens of similar reconnaissance satellites launched during this period by the USSR, was carrying a small nuclear reactor on board. The reactor was designed to power the satellite for years as it circled the Earth. The Kosmos satellite used active radar to track oceangoing vessels and needed a considerable amount of power to run. That power was derived from over 100 lbs of uranium-235.
While the launch was unremarkable, the stunning amount of enriched uranium onboard this one satellite was about to become a serious problem.
Problems In Orbit
The Kosmos satellites were designed to remain in orbit for many years, ideally decades before they started to experience any sort of orbital decay. Kosmos 954 barely lasted two months. By December, it was becoming increasingly obvious that something was very wrong with Kosmos 954.
The orbit of the satellite was becoming increasingly erratic, and it had severely deviated from its original planned orbit. The satellite’s movements were so noticeable that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) contacted the Soviet Union. They had tracked orbital swings of over 50 miles. These wild swings in orbital trajectory were a result of Soviet operators trying to put the satellite back into a stable orbit, but they were failing to do so.
The Soviet Union was forced to admit to NORAD that they had lost control of their satellite. Most of…
