Nuclear Power Military satellite model, handmade, highly detailed metal striking model with elements of resin composite, 11.1/2” long, 13.1/2” solar panels wide spread.

Military satellite, type of Kosmos 1402 equipped with a nuclear power source. Kosmos 1402 was a RORSAT surveillance satellite that used radar for monitoring NATO vessels. The power source for the satellite was a BES-5 nuclear fission reactor, which used about 50 kilograms (110 lb.) of enriched uranium as a fuel source. The satellite operated in low earth orbit, and the reactor was designed to eject to a higher parking orbit at the end of the satellite's mission, or in the event of a mishap. This ejection mechanism was implemented in the RORSAT satellites after a nuclear accident caused by a previous malfunction of Kosmos 954, five years earlier over Canada's Northwest Territories.

On February 2, 1998, the Russian government adopted a decree aimed at reviving the dormant Russian space nuclear program. It called for resuming research and development in the field with the goal of producing nuclear reactors with a capacity of up to 100 kilowatts and an operational lifetime of five to seven years after 2010. A key short-term goal was to use nuclear reactors as part of so-called “transport and energy modules” (TEM), a Russian term for electric space tugs. The nuclear reactor would power an electric propulsion system to boost spacecraft to their operational orbits (“transport”) and subsequently provide power to their on-board systems (“energy”). This would make it possible to increase the mass of payloads delivered to high orbits by two to three times and supply them with 10 to 20 times more power than before.

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