Word: orbiteer
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...Russians, by contrast, seem less advanced in the use of solar energy and employ nuclear power supplies more frequently in earth orbit. Furthermore, to generate high power (100 kilowatts or more), they use a fission process, which produces radioactive strontium 90, cesium and iodine - all far more threatening to human life than the alpha particles generated by the U.S.'s plutonium 238 fuel...
Both the U.S. and the Soviets normally shoot their satellites' nuclear power packs into high orbit (600 to 900 miles) after their use has ended. At present, there are 16 Soviet and eight American nucle ar power supplies in these "parking" or bits. These highfliers may circle the earth safely for up to 10,000 years, and while their radiation will not have decayed completely when they start to come down, its potency will be sufficiently diminished so that the danger is likely to disappear...
...last Monday afternoon, NORAD had a better fix on the decaying orbit, projecting the terminal track across the Australian deserts, then northeastward over the Pacific and into the beginning of reentry over the Queen Charlotte Islands, off British Columbia. Before dawn, Brzezinski was aroused with the news that Canada indeed...
...Soviet predecessors of 954 broke up on re-entering the atmosphere in 1973 and fell into the Pacific north of Japan. Two Russian moon-bound craft, which used radioactive fuels to heat their capsules, went into earth orbit in 1969, but dropped back into the atmosphere and burned out with some release of detected high-altitude radiation...
...which has been using SNAP (Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) power packs since 1961, has had three accidents. A Navy navigation satellite failed to reach orbit in 1964 and disintegrated in the atmosphere over Madagascar. A meteorological satellite was aborted on launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1968, and the nuclear package was recovered intact. As Apollo 13 returned from an unsuccessful moon flight in 1970, the three astronauts had to jettison their unused moon lander, and its power pack plunged into the Pacific Ocean near Australia...