Project A119: A Plan To Nuke The Moon
Armour Research FoundationProject A119 proposed nuking the Moon to show the Soviets that America had beaten them to the lunar surface.
While the Cold War was going on, a much less subtle conflict was unfolding before the public’s eyes: the Space Race. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to flex their technological prowess, and there was seemingly no better way to do so than a competition over space exploration.
But before the United States could send mankind to the Moon, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite into orbit, in 1957.
After the launch of Sputnik, the U.S. needed something to best the Soviets, and one of the early ideas came in the form of Project A119. The plan was bizarre but also rather simple: nuke the Moon.
As strange as it may sound, that really was the proposal. The U.S. Air Force reached out to leading scientists and asked them, not-so-hypothetically, what would happen if they struck the lunar surface with a nuclear bomb. They wanted to set off a mushroom cloud explosion on the dark side of the Moon so that the Sun would illuminate the cloud, making it visible for billions of people across the world — especially the Soviets — to see.
Of course, there was concern about leaving a giant crater in the Moon, and there was also the risk of public backlash. Ultimately, the plan was left on the drawing room floor and only came to light again in 2000, when the information was publicized. Even then, it drew criticism. British nuclear historian David Lowry called the plot “obscene,” but others still defended it, saying it could have provided a new understanding of lunar chemistry.
Although it might seem like an insane plan today, there was very nearly a world where the secret Project A119 came to fruition — and who knows how differently history might have played out if it had?
