In the 1950s, the US military considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon as a part of Project A119, possibly as a response to the Soviet Union’s lead in the space race. The plan was abandoned in 1959 due to safety concerns and the potential for a radioactive lunar surface. The signing of treaties in 1963 and 1967 specifically prohibited the detonation of nuclear devices on the Moon.
Although it seems absurd now, US military scientists in the 1950s briefly considered the explosion of an atomic bomb on the Moon. In a 2000 interview, physicist Leonard Reiffel admitted that the secret plan, known as Project A119, involved a rocket that would deliver a small nuclear device to the lunar surface, where it would be detonated. The Soviets had taken the lead in the space race in 1957 by launching a beach ball-sized satellite called Sputnik I. The idea of a nuclear explosion on the Moon may have been America’s idea of Cold War revenge.
Assault on the Moon during the Cold War:
According to Reiffel, the idea was scrapped in 1959 due to the dangers of launching a nuclear device. In addition, scientists were concerned about future explorations on a radioactive lunar surface.
Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, doubts whether the United States “had any rockets that would have had the power to leave Earth’s orbit and strike the Moon” during the 1950s.
The signing of the Partial Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1963 and the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 specifically banned the detonation of nuclear devices on the Moon.
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