How the USSR dropped a satellite with radioactive fuel on Canada, and how it all ended

When parts of a spent spacecraft fall into the territory of a state, this always entails a number of problems. Well, if this is the fall of a satellite with a nuclear installation, which did not have time to burn out in the atmosphere, then the number of troubles increases significantly. It was such an accident that occurred more than 40 years ago when fragments of a Soviet satellite fell into Canada.

The successful launch of the Cosmos-954 satellite took place in the early fall of 1977, and it worked in orbit for a little over 40 days, after which communication with it was lost. Despite all attempts to resume control, the satellite stopped responding to the sent signals. Subsequently, the engine crashed, the satellite shifted from a given orbit. The fate of the lost apparatus was monitored not only by specialists from the USSR, but also by employees of the joint aerospace defense system of Canada and the United States of America.

When it became obvious that the satellite had left orbit and its fall to Earth was inevitable, panic began in the press, and experts began to speculate about where the rest of the spacecraft would fall. Cosmos-954 kept the earthlings in suspense for 3 months, and after passing through the atmosphere, the wreckage of the Soviet satellite landed in Canada. By a happy coincidence, these were sparsely populated North-Western territories, so people and the infrastructure of settlements were not affected. But this circumstance significantly complicated the search for debris and the elimination of the consequences of radioactive contamination, which were conducted in winter in difficult terrain. This technological disaster complicated relations between the USSR and Canada, which sued several million dollars. The USSR partially satisfied these requirements and compensated for the damage, as well as stopped flights of such devices and began their modernization. Although since then many debris from spacecraft have fallen to the Earth, including the territory of various countries, this case has become widely known due to radioactive contamination of the area.