SNAP 10A Space Reactor

Podcast: The Innovation Attorney Podcast · The Innovation Attorney

Opublikowano: 2026-10-10

The SNAP 10A reactor, launched April 3, 1965, remains the only American fission reactor operated in space, and a failed voltage regulator ended its mission after 43 days. The cause sat outside the core. A voltage regulator on the Agena upper stage failed, the reactor shut itself down on May 16, 1965, and the design had no way to restart. The reactor still circles the Earth in a polar orbit near 1,300 kilometers, and it has been shedding debris since 1979. Atomics International built it for the Atomic Energy Commission SNAP program. Thirty seven rods of uranium zirconium hydride made about 30 kilowatts...