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How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union

 
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 21689021
United Kingdom
11/26/2012 08:56 AM
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How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union
[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]

It may sound like a plot straight out of a science fiction novel, but a U.S. mission to blow up the moon with a nuke was very real in the 1950s.

At the height of the space race, the U.S. considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon as a display of America's Cold War muscle.

The secret project, innocuously titled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights' and nicknamed 'Project A119,' was never carried out.

However, its planning included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, then a young graduate student, of the behavior of dust and gas generated by the blast.

Viewing the nuclear flash from Earth might have intimidated the Soviet Union and boosted U.S. confidence after the launch of Sputnik, physicist Leonard Reiffel told the AP in a 2000 interview.

Under the scenario, a missile carrying a small nuclear device was to be launched from an undisclosed location and travel 238,000 miles to the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact.
Anonymous Coward
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11/26/2012 09:19 AM
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Re: How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union
It would make a small crater...but no weapon on Earth could destroy the whole moon
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 25027070
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11/26/2012 09:40 AM
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Re: How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union
Sounds like they were watching Space 1999!

[link to www.youtube.com]





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