US-A

• Launch failure, 25 April 1973. Launch failed and the reactor fell into the Pacific Ocean north of Japan. Radiation was detected by US air sampling airplanes.
• Kosmos 367 (04564 / 1970-079A), 3 October 1970, failed 110 hours after launch, moved to higher orbit.^[3]: 10
• Kosmos 954. The satellite failed to boost into a nuclear-safe storage orbit as planned. Nuclear materials re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 24 January 1978 and left a trail of radioactive pollution over an estimated 124,000 square kilometres of Canada's Northwest Territories.
• Kosmos 1402. Failed to boost into storage orbit in late 1982. The reactor core was separated from the remainder of the spacecraft and was the last piece of the satellite to return to Earth, landing in the South Atlantic Ocean on 7 February 1983.
• Kosmos 1900. The primary system failed to eject the reactor core into storage orbit, but the backup managed to push it into an orbit 80 km (50 mi) below its intended altitude.^{[4][3]: 56, 58}

Although most nuclear cores were successfully ejected into higher orbits, their orbits will still eventually decay.

US-A satellites were a major source of space debrisinlow Earth orbit. The debris is created two ways:

• During 16 reactor core ejections, approximately 128 kg of NaK-78 (afusible alloy eutectic of 22% and 78% w/w sodium and potassium, respectively) escaped from the primary coolant systems of the BES-5 reactors. The smaller droplets have already decayed/reentered, but larger droplets (up to 5.5 cm in diameter) are still in orbit. Since the metal coolant was exposed to neutron radiation, it contains some radioactive argon-39, with a half-life of 269 years. There is no risk of surface contamination, as the droplets will burn up completely in the upper atmosphere on re-entry and the argon, a chemically inert gas, will dissipate. The major risk is impact with operational satellites.^[5]

• An additional mechanism is through the impact of space debris hitting intact contained coolant loops. A number of these old satellites are punctured by orbiting space debris—calculated to be 8 percent over any 50-year period—and release their remaining NaK coolant into space. The coolant self-forms into frozen droplets of solid sodium-potassium of up to around several centimeters in size,^[6] and these solid objects then become a significant source of space debris themselves.^[7]

There were 38 Rorsat satellite launches from Baikonur, all with reported mass of 3,800 kg.^[8]

• SNAP-10A, an experimental nuclear reactor launched into orbit by the United States
• Space-based radar
• List of Kosmos satellites

• Encyclopedia Astronautica article on the US-A RORSAT programme.
• The US-A program and radio observations thereof
• Leonard David (29 March 2004). "Havoc in the Heavens: Soviet-Era Satellite's Leaky Reactor's Lethal Legacy". Space.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2004.
• Leonard David (15 January 2009). "Old Nuclear-Powered Soviet Satellite Acts Up". Space.com.