From: utzoo!hcr!pierre Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Nuclear satellites and U.S. Article-I.D.: hcr.309 Posted: Fri Jan 28 18:41:27 1983 Received: Fri Jan 28 19:50:46 1983 During the past couple of weeks, we heard a lot about the Soviet satellite that was going to fall on our heads. Does anyone remember that the U.S. have some experience with falling nuclear-powered satellites ? A suggested reading is "Science", the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, January 7, 1983. It reports one case, among others, in 1964, when a plutonium-powered Transit navigational satellite fell back into the ocean. After that period, the level of plu- tonium in the atmosphere increased threefold.