@1517fund: 65 years ago today, @USNavy's Transit-4A became the first satellite to use nuclear power in orbit. Its tiny RTG outputt…
Summary
65 years ago, the US Navy's Transit-4A became the first satellite to use nuclear power in orbit with a tiny RTG. Today, modern RTGs like those from Zeno Power can scale output using nuclear waste.
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Cached at: 06/30/26, 09:53 PM
65 years ago today, @USNavy’s Transit-4A became the first satellite to use nuclear power in orbit.
Its tiny RTG outputted ~3W w/ Pu-238.
Modern RTGs (like @zeno_power’s — also supported by the US Navy) can scale their output, to 0.3x to 100x w/ nuclear waste https://t.co/WfZW4b9Hs4
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