Kosmos 954 (russian:
Космос 954) was a
reconnaissance satellite
A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications.
Th ...
launched by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in 1977. A malfunction prevented safe separation of its onboard
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
; when the satellite
reentered the Earth's atmosphere the following year, it scattered radioactive debris over
northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories an ...
, some of the debris landing in the Great Slave Lake next to
Fort Resolution, NWT.
This prompted an extensive multiyear cleanup operation known as Operation Morning Light, which the Canadian government billed the Soviet Union for over
Can$6 million, and for which the USSR eventually paid just Can$3 million in compensation.
Launch and operation
The satellite was part of the Soviet Union's
RORSAT programme, a series of reconnaissance satellites which observed ocean traffic, including surface vessels and nuclear submarines, using active
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
.
It was assigned the
Kosmos number 954 and was launched on 18 September 1977 at 13:55 UTC from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur''
, image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg
, caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...
, on a
Tsyklon-2 carrier rocket.
With an
orbital inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Ea ...
of 65°, a
periapsis of and
apoapsis of , it orbited the Earth every 89.5 minutes.
Powered by a liquid sodium–potassium
thermionic converter driven by a nuclear reactor containing around of
uranium-235
Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exi ...
, the satellite was intended for long-term on-
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...
observation, but by December 1977 the satellite had deviated from its designed orbit and its flightpath was becoming increasingly erratic.
In mid-December
North American Aerospace Defense Command, which had assigned the satellite the
Satellite Catalog Number 10361, noticed Kosmos 954 making erratic manoeuvres, changing the altitude of its orbit by up to 50 miles, as its Soviet operators struggled to control their failing spacecraft. In secret meetings, Soviet officials warned their US counterparts that they had lost control over the vehicle, and that the system which was intended to propel the spent
reactor core into a safe
disposal orbit
A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellites are moved into ...
had failed.
At 11:53 GMT on 24 January 1978, Kosmos 954 reentered the Earth's atmosphere while travelling on a northeastward track over western Canada.
At first the USSR claimed that the satellite had been completely destroyed during re-entry,
but later searches showed debris from the satellite had been deposited on Canadian territory along a path from
Great Slave Lake to
Baker Lake. The area spans portions of the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, present-day
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
, and
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
.
Recovery
The effort to recover
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...
material from the satellite was dubbed Operation Morning Light. Covering a total area of , the joint Canadian–American team swept the area on foot and by air in Phase I from 24 January 1978 to 20 April 1978 and Phase II from 21 April 1978 to 15 October 1978.
They were ultimately able to recover twelve large pieces of the satellite, ten of which were radioactive.
These pieces displayed radioactivity of up to 1.1
sieverts per hour, yet they only comprised an estimated 1% of the fuel. One fragment had a radiation level of 500 R/h, which "is sufficient to kill a person ... remaining in contact with the piece for a few hours."
Aftermath
Under the terms of the 1972
Space Liability Convention, a state which launches an object into space is liable for damages caused by that object.
For the recovery efforts, the Canadian government billed the Soviet Union
Can$6,041,174.70 for expenses and additional compensation for future unpredicted expenses; the USSR eventually paid Can$3 million.
Kosmos 954 was not the first nuclear-powered RORSAT to fail; a launch of a similar satellite in 1973 failed, dropping its reactor into the Pacific Ocean north of Japan. Subsequently,
Kosmos 1402 also failed, dropping its reactor into the South Atlantic in 1983. Subsequent RORSATs were equipped with a backup core ejection mechanism, when the primary mechanism failed on Kosmos 1900 in 1988, this system succeeded in raising the core to a safe disposal orbit.
Search teams did not find re-entry debris at the predicted location until they recalculated where that location would be based upon data indicating a
stratospheric
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air h ...
warming event had been in progress during re-entry. The stratospheric warming was first documented by the US Army Meteorological Rocket Network station at Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska.
Pop culture
Kosmos 954 has become a well known piece of history and lore in
Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife painter Nick MacIntosh has created works of art featuring the satellite and well known local landmarks.
The 28 January 1978, episode of
''Saturday Night Live'' featured a
running gag about the radioactive debris from the crashed satellite having created giant, mutant lobsters heading for the U.S. east coast. The story concluded with them invading the television studio at the show's end.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Radiation Geophysics – Operation Morning Light – A personal account Natural Resources Canada
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; french: Ressources naturelles Canada; french: RNCan, label=none)Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the dep ...
– a detailed first-hand account of recovering pieces of Kosmos 954; includes pictures.
Note verbale dated 19 December 1978 from the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations Description and location of recovered pieces.
*
– Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, North West Territories, Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosmos 0954
Satellites formerly orbiting Earth
Kosmos satellites
Reconnaissance satellites of the Soviet Union
Canada–Soviet Union relations
1978 in the Soviet Union
Nuclear power in space
1978 in Canada
Nuclear accidents and incidents
Disasters in the Northwest Territories
Disasters in Alberta
Disasters in Saskatchewan
Environment of Canada
Spacecraft launched in 1977
History of Yellowknife
Nuclear-powered robots