Nuke the Moon: The Story of Project A119
The explosion would have been visible from the Earth.
The rivalry between America and the Soviet Union brought us some great leaps in technology. Specifically, when it came to space exploration, the Cold War was a period of unmatched excitement and governmental willingness to shove some guys into a metal canister and shoot them into space.
During the 1950s, the Soviet Union was ahead of America in this endeavour. by 1958, it had already been the first to send a satellite into orbit (and receive signals from space as a result) and the first to put a mammal up there, too.
America was lagging behind. The U.S. government was putting some serious money into R&D for the Space Race (NASA’s budget in 1958 was 89 million dollars, which is 813 million dollars when adjusted for inflation)but had nothing to show for it. It would eventually achieve a few important firsts, starting in 1961 with the first pilot-controlled Space Flight: the Freedom 7, with Alan Shepard at the helm.
But in 1957, Washington was concerned about the American People’s morale and confidence in their government in the face of the Soviet Union’s successes, and the fact that they had gone unanswered so far. They had to come up with a plan that could achieve significant results, and they had to do it fast.
They first attempted to put a satellite of their own in orbit. It was called “Vanguard TV-3”, and its launch was to be televised across the United States of America.
It was a disaster. The boosters ignited but failed to lift the rocket past the astonishing height of four feet (1.2 metres), causing it to crash back into the launch pad after a total flight time of two seconds, where it came to rest vertically. And then it exploded.
America would eventually successfully launch a satellite only a few weeks later. But that success was still overshadowed by the failure of Vanguard TV-3 — which the people and the media would constantly compare to the Soviet successes of Sputniks 1 and 2. The TV-3 received several disparaging nicknames from newspapers across the country, ranging from “Kaputnik” to my personal favourite, the “Stayputnik.”
The Air Force was concerned about the public image of America’s Space Program and decided to come up with a plan for how to salvage the reputation of the U.S. government both abroad and at home.
That plan’s name was “Project A119”, and the idea was rather simple: “nuke the Moon, and make sure people on Earth can see it by targeting the edge between the light side and the dark side, and make sure the explosion takes place on the surface and not on a crater.”
They then gave the Armour Research Foundation (ARF) the task of covertly researching the potential consequences of a nuclear impact on the Moon.
Meanwhile, the media began running with a story — supposedly acquired from an unnamed source within the U.S. Secret Service — that the Soviets wanted to nuke the Moon during the anniversary of their October Revolution.
The prospect of the Soviets achieving yet another first gave the Air Force’s idea greater impetus, and a ten-person research team was assembled in Illinois to study the benefits to science of such a test, as well as the possible visibility of it from the Earth. Two of the ten people involved in this study were Gerard Kuiper and Carl Sagan, who was Kuiper’s doctoral student at the time.
The point of the study wasn’t entirely “cosmetic” — although the Air Force definitely wanted to claim the project’s purpose was “for purely scientific reasons” — as there were real concerns about the effects such an explosion could have on the Moon.
And it was the study’s findings that killed the project. Concerns were raised over the safety of the people on Earth and the potential impacts a nuclear fallout could have on future efforts to colonize the Moon.
Project A119 was then quietly shelved. The public only learned of its existence when the leader of the project’s research team in Illinois, Leonard Reiffel, who had also worked as a NASA executive for many years, revealed its existence to the media.
However, despite the story of A119 now being public knowledge, the U.S. Government still refuses to acknowledge its existence. Maybe Leonard Reiffel just had a year-long fever dream. Or maybe the U.S. Government is just embarrassed that they once seriously considered nuking the Moon.
Whatever the case (it’s definitely the latter), I think we can all be glad that the Moon is still (mostly) intact, at least for the time being. Maybe one day, we’ll get to see corporate advertisements painted over its surface. Ever thought about looking up at the night sky and being greeted by the sight of a failed corporate attempt at “connecting with the youth”?
“hey there wassup I think ur totally gonna, like, love our new product, just $19.99 plus tax. mood.”
