By 
May 19th, 2022
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
That Soviet-era, nuclear-powered Cosmos 954 satellite that crashed into Canada on January 24, 1978 is haunting a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Lance Rayner.
In a newly-posted story by Malak Abas in the Winnipeg Free Press, Rayner, then 24-years-old, was first on the scene with a fellow mountie at the site in Lutselk’e, a settlement on the eastern shore of Great Slave Lake.
Rayner has been diagnosed with a rare malignant parotid tumor and Stage 4 cancer. The former mountie believes guarding some of the radioactive remains of the Soviet satellite has caused his rare cancer condition.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Clean-up operations
Under the code-name “Operation Morning Light,” it was determined that radioactive satellite debris had indeed survived re-entry and reached the ground.
Subsequent clean-up operations sought to safeguard the welfare of Northern Canadians living in the affected area. A search and clean-up of radioactive debris was pulled together, involving hundreds of personnel from the Canadian military and government agencies, as well as a 120-person U.S. Nuclear Emergency Search Team.
Credit: Nevada National Security
To read the Winnipeg Free Press article – “Fateful mission – Former Mountie believes guarding Soviet satellite caused rare cancer” – go to:
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fateful-mission-576513942.html
Also, go to this video by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) at:
Lastly, go to an informative document on Operation Morning Light from Arctic Operational Histories edited and introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Ryan Dean at:
http://operationalhistories.ca/home/operation-morning-light/
Posted in Space News
