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Spacecraft launched for orbital missions have a finite orbital lifetime. Current estimates for the lifetime of the nine nuclear powered U.S. satellites now in orbit range from 150 years to 10{sup 6} years. Orbital lifetime is determined primarily by altitude, solar activity, and the satellite ballistic coefficient. There is also the potential of collision with other satellites or space debris, which would reduce the lifetime in orbit. These orbiting power sources contain primarily Pu-238 and Pu-239 as the fuel material. Pu-238 has an approximate 87-year half life and so considerable amounts of daughter products are present after a few tens of years. In addition, there are minor but possibly significant amounts of impurity isotopes present with their own decay chains. Radioisotopic heat sources have been designed to evolving criteria since the first launches. Early models were designed to burn up upon reentry. Later designs were designed to reenter intact. After tens or hundreds of years in orbit, the ability of any orbiting heat source to reenter intact and impact while maintaining containment integrity is in doubt. Such ability could only be verified by design to provide protection in the case of early mission failures such as launch aborts, failure to achieve orbit, or the attainment of only a short orbit. With the development of the Space Shuttle there exists the potential ability to recover heat sources in orbit after their missions are completed. Such retrieval could allow the risk of eventual reentry burnup or impact with atmospheric dispersion and subsequent radiation doses to the public to be avoided

The feasibility of retrieving nuclear heat sources from orbit with the space shuttle