Atomic twin ‘safe’

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 1

Atomic twin ‘safe’

NZPA • Washington ...A' Soviet nuclear-po-wered .. satellite, described as ’a “twin" of the one that crashed in Canada, in 1978, is crossing New Zealand twice a day, American :■ space-tracking •. officials have confirmed/

... Blit they, said they had no fears that., the satellite, QbSrhps.' ;■ 1176, > the. ? latinch-ing;-,pf?whichpn?April;29 was criticised, by the '/State Department, J.was malfunctioning <?r likely to plummet to Earth. ? , “It is in a stable orbit,' almost iidentical -;to; its . original: launch; and.we have no. predicted decay' date inC; 1980,” la-' spokesman ■ far£ the. North American Air Defence : Command tbld lhe. NZPA-' yesterday. •. 1 ■ ■. ’Cosmos 11176. was the' first nuclear-powered satellite ' the ’ Russians- had put' into orbit in 21 years after the crash of Cosmos

954, which scattered ? W-. dioactive -.debris, over. a. 46,800 . square kiloriietre area of the Canadian Arctic in January, 1978. - . After the launching on April 29, a State Department spokesman, Mr Tom Reston, told newsmen that the United States had “a heavy element of ?'human . concern” about the dew • satellite?; -••• •’ •

■ The-' State /Department’s ‘‘concern’’?has not changed . now- ;that the satellite has been in orbit 101 days, a spokesman told the NZPA'. yesterday.' ' • . But the command spo- ' kesman insisted that it ? was “a routine satellite, which- , we are tracking routinely.” ■ “As far as we are con- ' cerried' it is? - no different '■ from- the: 4551 satellites and pieces of debris currently in orbit,” he said. ’ . According.- to the command Cosmos 1176 is circling the • Earth every

89.6 minutes at a height ranging between 248 and 262 kilometres. It crosses New Zealand oh its orbital path every 12 hours. . The . - satellite- was launched five' days after the Americans’,, raid on Iran in dn abortive bid. to free - ■ the United ■ States’, hostages in Teheran. -American, experts believe? the satellite’s main task is -to. monitor American ships -plying in... the' .Indian ocean, and ‘Persian Gulf.. The' .experts say. this kind of' Soviet. spy- satellite needs' the high electrical output .of a ' nuclear reactor.'to power >the rgdar sets used to track American vessels. ?; ; . Ever?'since Cosmos' 954 crashed in Canada,’ apparently when the Russians were unable- to boost it into > the? .higher?: and,.. safer, orbit; where ’; spacecraft taken ”.Qut. of?,service? are “discarded” harmlessly, the United-States’has been

unsuccessfully . attempting tompose international safeguards on nuclearpowered satellites. An . Invercargill astronomer, Mr Geoffrey Hall-Jones, said,last evening that Cosmos i 1176 was the shape of a cone with a cylinder, and was probably about" 14 metres .long, and about 2.5 metres in diameter..' It was, ‘ in th?' ’ New Zealand skies between two and four times a day. " ' -. While 'confirming ?■ that he knew of no. danger from Cosmos 1176, ,Mr Hall-Jones; ? who is monitoring about 30 satellites for a British organisation,'. said he. found it amusing,'; that ; anti-nuclear protes- : ters'.-, had- ■. demonstrated i against visits, to’ Auckland- ; by the occasional American warship,-while a'-satel-lite ? carrying a. ‘ nuclear : reactor was virtually? going, over their --'heads, unnoticed, every day.- \