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1950s, A Study of Lunar Research Flights, Armour Research Foundation, Astronomer Carl Sagan, atom bomb, ballistic, blow up the moon, cold war, cold war era, contamination, detonation, intercontinental ballistic missiles, LUNAR, massive explosion, missles, Moon, NASA, nuclear bomb, nuclear detonation, nuclear device, nuke, Project A119, radioactive material, Russian, secret project, show of strength, Soviet Union, space, space contamination, space era, Sputnik 1, us air force, ussr
In a secret project recently discovered, the United States planned to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb in the 1950s as a display of the country’s strength during the Cold War space race.
The secret project, called “A Study of Lunar Research Flights”, as well as “Project A119” was never carried out but initially intended to intimidate the Soviet Union after their launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, which demonstrated their technological power, the Daily Mail reports.
The sight of a magnificent nuclear flash from Earth was meant to terrify the Soviet Union and boost US confidence, physicist Leonard Reiffel, 85, told the Associated Press. The nuclear device would have been launched from a missile from an unknown location. It would have ignited upon impact with the moon, causing a massive explosion that was visible from Earth.
