May 2 1980
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Further press comment on the USSR launch April 29 of Cosmos 1176 included a Washington Post speculation that the United States might deplore the nuclear-powered vehicle for more reasons than its deterrent effect on United Nations negotiations.
Recalling the aborted attempt April 24-25 to rescue U.S. hostages in the Tehran embassy, the Washington Post noted that the Cosmos 1176 launch came only four days later. Just before it began the rescue attempt, the U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz "sped away from a Soviet spy ship that had been trailing it, and apparently was able to launch the rescue helicopters on their secret mission without notice." Satellites spying with radar needed nuclear sources for the necessary power; solar cells, e.g., could not produce enough electricity. The new satellite "passing daily over the Indian Ocean and Middle East ... may well be meant to keep the Kremlin from being surprised again by providing radar surveillance of the U.S. fleet," the Washington Post said.
The Washington Star cited the January 1978 breakup of Cosmos 954 that scattered radioactive debris across a remote region of Canada; one expert suggested that the Soviet Union might have solved the problem causing the Canada crash or might have developed a new nonnuclear power source for the new satellite's radar. However, U.S. officials were "virtually certain" that the new satellite was, like those in the Cosmos 954 series, powered by radioactive thermal generators creating heat that turned turbines to produce electricity. The United States had already detected radar emissions from Cosmos 1176, indicating that it was looking for U.S. and other ships. Its radar was 90% able to detect objects the size of aircraft carriers, 50% cruisers, and 30% frigates. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had revealed that such satellites carried about 1001 pounds of uranium; after about 75 days, they were supposed to be rocketed to 500-mile-altitude orbits where they would remain for about 100 years, or until the materials were no longer dangerous. (W Post, May 2/80, A-6; W Star, May 2/80, A-1)
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