This color educational film is about the first nuclear reactor to be operated in space, the Snap 10A reactor power system. Copyright is June 1962.
Opening credits: SPACE NUCLEAR POWER (:10-1:00). A satellite floats in space. Atomics International employees at work. The name of this program is SNAP (Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power). The SNAP 10A system. A man pieces together the top of the SNAP 10A. A man places a mercury turbo generator into it. A reactor: reflectors and the vessel, a fuel element is in the vessel (1:01-3:11). What is in the reflector is shown and explained. Two men piece together the SNAP 10A unit. A rocket is launched. The rocket floats in space. Men work on the reactor. A man holds a tube. Another man holds a tube. A series of tests on the reactors are performed. Men in a computer control room (3:12-5:14). A reflector is assembled. A truck carries the shipping container. Vandenberg Air Force Base sign. Men perform check out procedures on the reactor. A non-nuclear nosecone. A rocket on the launched at night. Men with hard hats work around the rocket. A hand turns a key. Mission control launch control center. During the day, the rocket is launched. Men monitor it in the control room. A rocket is exploded. A rocket is launched successfully (5:15-7:54). Men in mission control. The rocket floats in space. An earth globe. A rocket goes around this model of earth just for show. A rocket disintegrates upon reentry. Men work on the reactor. A man works on a reflector.The globe model slowly turns. Photos of weather from space. A battleship at sea. The rocket in space (7:55-10:07). End credits (10:08-10:27).
SNAP-10A (Systems for Nuclear, Auxiliary Power, aka Snapshot for Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power Shot, also known as OPS 4682, COSPAR 1965-027A) was a US experimental nuclear powered satellite launched into space in 1965 as part of the SNAPSHOT program. The test marked the world’s first operation of a nuclear reactor in orbit, and also the first operation of an ion thruster system in orbit. It is the only fission reactor power system launched into space by the United States. The reactor stopped working after just 43 days due to a non-nuclear electrical component failure. The Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power Program (SNAP) reactor was specifically developed for satellite use in the 1950s and early 1960s under the supervision of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
