Let's Nuke the Moon!

The 50s weren’t going so great for the Cold War, at least if you were American. The USSR had just launched Sputnik, the first human-made satellite in space. This was a shock heard far and wide. I remember my parents telling me that it was possible to find Sputnik in the night sky.

This was no good for Americans! If the Soviets could launch something into space, then surely they could deliver nuclear explosives across an ocean.

The US needed a win badly, and Kennedy’s Moonshot speech was still a few years off.

Enter Project A119.

The United States Air Force recognized that a potent symbol of American might was the only thing that would do the trick. They also needed to couch this show of force in the guise of scientific discovery.

If the Russians could demonstrate their ability to bring nukes across the ocean, then the United States would bring them to the moon, creating a spectacle nobody on planet Earth could ever forget.

Notable scientists like a young Carl Sagan were brought in to c…