The United States hatched an astonishing plot to nuke the moon in the 1950s. Project A119 planned a nuclear explosion on the lunar surface that would be visible from planet Earth. The reason was to send a warning to the Soviet Union during the Cold War – a huge display of American military superiority.
Project A119 was officially titled ‘A Study of Lunar Research Flights’ to mask its true intent. Secrecy was essential in case there was a public outcry. The US government and military had been spooked by Soviet achievements in space. Unsure how to get back in the lead, the Americans countenanced a gigantic and very visual display of strength.
The bomb would have been as powerful as the one dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, at the end of World War Two, killing tens of thousands of people. The United States Air Force was warned such an explosion would destroy the pristine environment of the moon. But scoring a major win against the Soviet Union took priority.
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Carl Sagan and Project A119
Amongst those involved was the globally renowned scientist and TV broadcaster Carl Sagan. His ‘Cosmos’ series in the 1970s popularised science to a global audience of millions with cutting-edge graphics. Yet Sagan, who died in 1996, was also part of Project A119 – the plot to nuke the moon. He was tasked with analysing the likely effects of the explosion. His posthumously published biography in 1999 brought the project to light, forty years after it was dropped in 1959.
Project A119 never went ahead as the US decided to send astronauts to the moon – instead of a blowing a chunk out of it. In 1969, Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – placing the United States decisively in the lead when it came to manned missions to the moon. He walked on to a pristine environment, and not into a nuclear wasteland.
