Cosmos-1402 is a Soviet reconnaissance satellite of the marine space reconnaissance and targeting system of the US-A series. It was launched on August 30, 1982 from launcher No. 19 of platform No. 90 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome . After completing the working task at the end of 1982, the nuclear power plant could not be put into orbit. The situation preceded the disaster that happened with the satellite Cosmos-954 . The American media actively discussed the problem of Soviet spy satellites with nuclear reactors on board. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Fortunately, the radiation safety system of the reactor worked, which was absent in previous versions of the US-A series satellites, [7] which destroyed it into three large parts. The first part, most likely an antenna, burned out in the atmosphere on December 30. The second part, the satellite itself, fell into the Indian Ocean on January 23, 1983. And finally, the third part, the reactor core, burned out and was scattered in the Earth’s atmosphere over Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean on February 7 . If the reactor fell just 20 minutes earlier, then its fall would have occurred in Central Europe . [8] Measurements of atmospheric uranium-235 concentrations a year later showed that approximately 44 kilograms of uranium were scattered and remained in the stratosphere. [9] Over the following years, radioactive elements from the active part of the satellite’s reactor fell to the Earth in the form of precipitation. [10] [11] After this accident, the flights of the US-A series satellites were stopped for a year and a half. [12]
| Cosmos-1402 | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer |  OKB-52 , KB-1 |
| Tasks | reconnaissance, target designation |
| Satellite | Of the earth |
| Launch pad | Baikonur PU No. 19 Pl. No. 90 |
| Launch vehicle | Cyclone 2 |
| Launch | August 30, 1982 10:04:00 UTC |
| Descent from orbit | January 23, 1983 |
| NSSDC ID | 1982-084A |
| SCN | 13441 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 3800 kg, reactor: 1250 kg |
| Elements of the orbit | |
| Eccentricity | 0,00187 |
| Mood | 65 ° |
| Circulation period | 89.6 min |
| Apocenter | 279 km |
| Pericenter | 254 km |
Notes
- ↑ Frederic Golden. Cosmos 1402 Is Out of Control TIME ( January 17, 1983 ). Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ William J. Broad. Satellite's fuel core falls 'harmlessly' . The New York Times ( February 8, 1983 ). Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ Mudd . Cosmos 1402 to Crash This Weekend, NBC ( January 19, 1983 ).
- ↑ Koppel, McWethy . Cosmos 1402, ABC ( January 20, 1983 ).
- ↑ Brokaw, Murphy, Fernandez, Compton . Cosmos 1402, NBC ( January 21, 1983 ).
- ↑ Donaldson, McWethy . Cosmos 1402, ABC ( January 23, 1983 ).
- ↑ Gudilin V.E., Weak L.I. Nuclear power plants. . Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ GL Kulcinski. Nuclear Thermal Rockets. Lecture 24. (English) . Rawlings-SAIC ( March 22, 2004 ). Date of treatment July 30, 2007. Archived February 25, 2012.
- ↑ R. Leifer, Z. Juzdan, KWR Russell, JD Fassett, KR Eberhardt. Detection of Uranium from Cosmos-1402 in the Stratosphere . Science, Volume 238, Issue 4826, pp. 512-514 (October 1987 ). Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ S. Salaymeh, SC Lee, PK Kuroda. Plutonium fallout from the nuclear-powered satellite Cosmos-1402 Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Akadémiai Kiadó, co-published with Springer Science + Business Media BV, Formerly Kluwer Academic Publishers BV ( April 1987 ). Date of treatment August 20, 2008.
- ↑ SN Bakhtiar. Uranium fallout from nuclear-powered satellites and volcanic eruptions . Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR ( January 1, 1987 ). Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.
- ↑ Zheleznyakov A. B. Nuclear constellation (the history of the creation and operation of domestic spacecraft with nuclear power plants) . Date of treatment August 20, 2008. Archived on February 26, 2012.