USA Plan to Nuke the Moon
In a secret project recently discovered, the US had made plans to destroy the moon with a nuclear bomb in the 1950s to emphasise the country’s strength during the Cold War space race. This was because recently the Soviet Union had launched it's first satellite called Sputnik 1.
The sight of a magnificent nuclear flash from Earth was meant to terrify the Soviet Union and boost US confidence. 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 would be visible for people to see on Earth.
But in the end, the mission was abandoned due to safety reasons including the radioactive material that would contaminate space. The scientists were also worried about the bomb detonating prematurely, therefore endangering the people on Earth.
Rather than blow up the moon, the US continued the space race, sending its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. The project was officially canceled by the Air Force in Jan. 1959, and the US instead focused on sending a man to the moon.
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Great story post more material like this please. I always vote for space and Mars articles.
A nuclear explosion like that on the moon could have been severely catastrophic! Not just only change tides, but maybe even many large meteorites! The moon on the outside is fairly loose packed, that could have been very interesting!
Why would it change tides? The gravitational effect doesn't change when a nuke explodes on the moon. It's not like that they could move large parts of it out of the earth orbit.
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