Re: Radioactive Debris

Rainer Kracht (R.Kracht@t-online.de)
Wed, 24 Jan 96 23:32 +0100

Allen Thomson has pointed out that LES-8 (76-23A, 8746) and LES-9
(76-23B, 8747) carry RTGs. This is confirmed by Jean-Philippe Donnio's
Satellite Encyclopedia: "LES 8 & 9 were placed in geostationary orbit
with 90 deg between each other. Equipped with a radio isotropic 238 
plutonium generator, they could communicate without the help of a
ground station".

I looked up LES in Jane's Spaceflight Directory 1986 and found:
"Tacsat  Tactical communications satellites (Tacsat) need much greater
 onboard power than conventional comsats so that they can work with
 small ground terminals carried by ships, tanks, jeeps and aircraft.
 LES 5 (Lincoln Experiment Satellite), launched 1 Jul 1967 ... was 
 America's first. 2 days after it had been manoeuvred into a 33,360 km,
 near-synchronous orbit, the 1st satellite communications between US
 aircraft, a US Navy submarine and surface vessel, and Army ground units
 had been carried out. The follow-on Tacsat 1 ... was designed to 
 communicate with tiny land based receivers using aerials 0.3m in dia."

So my list of US radioactive payloads/debris has changed to:

US-SNAP (Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power):

  116 61-015A  TRANSIT 4A            US    103.6  66.8   984   872   2.4
  202 61-031A  TRANSIT 4B            US    105.7  32.4  1101   950   5.5
 1314 65-027A  OPS 4682 (SNAPSHOT)   US    111.5  90.2  1317  1273  10.2
 3890 69-037A  NIMBUS 3              US    107.3 100.1  1131  1072   5.1
 8746 76-023A  LES 8                 US   1436.2  15.6 35832 35746   1.9
 8747 76-023B  LES 9                 US   1436.1  15.6 35882 35690   4.0

US-SNAP?

 2866 67-066E  LES 5                 US   1316.0  12.3 33623 33183   3.0
 3431 68-081D  LES 6                 US   1435.7  13.6 35832 35726   2.5
 3691 69-013A  TACSAT (OPS 0757)     US   1435.5  14.5 35801 35748


Rainer Kracht   1996 Jan 24
0412188960-0001@t-online.de
R.Kracht@t-online.de