Nuke the site from orbit: American orbiting nuclear weapons during the Cold War

[Paul Nuttall]

Interesting Read from Space Review

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5325/1

Its a fairly long article but this is the bit that caught my attention

Satellite bomb disposal

Because the satellites would have a mean lifetime of only one year, they would have to be replaced on a regular basis. But even more problematically, they would also have to be recovered. The United States could not leave dead nuclear weapons flying overhead in low Earth orbit. Because they were designed to reenter the atmosphere, a dead nuclear weapon would fall intact, and nobody could predict where.

The report discussed the various problems associated with leaving the bombs in orbit, destroying them in orbit, and recovering them, determining that recovery was the best option. Dropping them in the ocean was a possible solution but risked enemy recovery. “If the enemy were to recover one of these, our warhead state-of-the-art would be revealed. Detonation of the warhead by high explosives under water would distribute the radioactive debris in the ocean,” the report stated. Even burning them up in the upper atmosphere would result in the distribution of plutonium around the Earth. “Several hundred occurrences of this sort may present a distinct health hazard.”

Before a satellite failed, it would be commanded to reenter over the continental United States. As it descended into the lower atmosphere, it would deploy a parachute and be recovered in midair by a specially equipped aircraft. This technique was already in use for the CORONA reconnaissance satellite and had been proven reliable. However, the CORONA reentry capsules with their reels of exposed film were relatively lightweight, in part because the reentry vehicle ejected its heat shield over the ocean. A nuclear reentry vehicle with its reentry shield attached would weigh significantly more.

After the satellite bomb was stored in the recovery aircraft, the aircraft would land at a secure facility, the satellite bomb would be removed and then transported to a secure processing facility. This would have to occur on a nearly weekly basis: nuclear weapons reentering over the United States regularly, hopefully without incident.

The designers had to assume that a reentering satellite bomb might not be caught by an aircraft and it therefore had to survive landing on the ground. It would include systems for aiding in this effort, such as a “package of scatter mirrors” made of polished aluminum that would be fired from the vehicle at an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) and scatter over the ground near the landing point. The vehicle would also have a smoke generator to create smoke to serve as a post-landing aid. The parachute would be attached in such a way as to land the vehicle nose up, so that the back, with the used retrorocket, and not the nuclear weapon, would take the impact with the ground.

[kdahm]

Heinlein already predicted this. In Space Cadet, he had his patrol do a servicing mission for orbital atomic bombs, and which led to the discussion of ethics and morality when the protagonist was next on leave at home. Basically, manned vessel does a rendezvous, safes it, brings it aboard, services, then releases. He doesn't explain where the delta-v comes from, but considering that it's 1948, that's still genius.

[jemhouston]

I'm real happy common sense broke out on an unprecedented scale.