Soviet Satellite Reactor Put Into ‘Graveyard’ Orbit

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A nuclear reactor aboard a falling Soviet satellite was separated and fired into a safe “graveyard” orbit, American and Soviet officials said Saturday. The automatic maneuver ensured that no dangerous radioactive debris would fall to Earth.

In Moscow, the official Soviet news agency Tass said the remaining part of the satellite, which posed no radiation danger, was expected to enter the atmosphere “shortly.” An American expert on Soviet space activities said the reactor would stay in a high orbit for centuries, and will have lost much of its radioactivity by then.