--- title: "Project A119: The Secret US Plan to Nuke the Moon During the Space Race" description: "Bright, transient and majestic, humanity has long been inspired by the Moon. She's been a focus of myth, a guide for explorers and a muse for poets. As children, many of us have pondered her pocked surface and imagined faces or omens. But have you ever been so enamored by the Moon that you just wanted to… blow it up?\n\nWell if you did, you might fit right in in the US Air Force. It just so happens that in the 50s, enough Air Force officials and scientists were interested in shooting a nuclear warhead at the Moon that an entire top-secret plan was developed: **Project A119**. Though the US government has never officially acknowledged its existence, documents and testimonies regarding the project have begun leaking since the turn of the century, implicating some big names, not to mention some crazy engineering and physics.\n\n## Behind in the Race\n\nOn 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union took a major lead in the space race by launching **Sputnik 1**, the first man-made satellite put into orbit. This led to what's become known as the **\"Sputnik crisis.\"** The American public was considerably discouraged by the USSR's major technological achievement, and not just because it symbolized their lead in aerospace science.\n\nRather, Sputnik meant the United States was suddenly vulnerable to Russian missile attacks. At the time, US plans to launch their own satellite used a rocket with 150,000 pounds or 670,000 Newtons of thrust, meaning the satellite could only weigh about 21.5 pounds, under 10 kilograms. Yet Sputnik weighed more than eight times as much at a whopping 184 pounds or 83 kilograms, meaning the Soviet R-7 rocket that launched it into orbit produced one million pounds or 4.4 million Newtons of thrust.\n\nIf the USSR could produce a rocket this powerful, it meant they could make ICBMs that could likely reach American soil. Americans were anxious and demoralized, which was only made worse by the US Navy's **Project Vanguard's** two failed attempts to launch a smaller American satellite soon after.\n\nNow, most people know that the United States eventually did launch their own satellite, Explorer 1, and had the last word in the space race after Apollo 11 put men on the Moon, but what many don't know is how many other eccentric ideas floated about the US government and military to reassure the American public in the short term.\n\nProject A119 was just one of these. Research began in **May 1958** through the **Armour Research Foundation**, or ARF, at the Illinois Institute of Technology and was led by the US Air Force. The ARF had already been studying the effects of nuclear explosions since 1949, so it was easy to shift to studying their effects on the lunar environment specifically.\n\nThey were inspired by rumors in American newspapers that the Soviet Union was planning to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, which happened to coincide with a lunar eclipse on 7 November 1957. Such a plan did exist, but documents discovered thus far only date the plans from 1958. Either way, no bomb went off on 7 November, so the US government believed that if they could set off an explosion of their own, it would show a technological advantage and raise the public's morale.\n\n## But Should We?\n\nARF's team at the Illinois Institute of Technology was led by **Leonard Reiffel** who was adamant that the rate of the US Air Force's development of ICBMs would make the project feasible by 1959. If they addressed certain issues, Reiffel believed they could hit a target on the surface of the Moon with an accuracy of under two miles.\n\nThe first issue was the size of the bomb. The team originally wanted to detonate a full hydrogen bomb, but the Air Force rejected this idea since it would require a payload too heavy for the rocket. Instead, the team settled on a **W25 warhead**, a small bomb only based on nuclear fission, unlike the fusion of the hydrogen bomb.\n\nWeighing only 220 pounds or 100 kilograms, the W25 had a yield of just **1.7 kilotonnes**, a mere 10 percent that of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and just .01 percent of the Castle Bravo, the United States' most powerful hydrogen bomb at the time—and to this day—with a yield of 15 megatonnes. As you might imagine, this meant the W25 explosion would be much harder to see than the massive burst of light from the hydrogen bomb originally envisioned.\n\nAs a result, ARF decided they'd have to detonate the bomb along the Moon's **terminator**, the dividing line of twilight between the light of the sun and the darkness of the Moon's shadow. This would make the light of the explosion the most visible while simultaneously allowing sunlight to reflect off the resulting dust cloud and make it visible as well.\n\nAt first glance, this all seemed simple enough, and you might think, if the US government could detonate so many bombs in the desert and on Pacific Islands, what would be the problem with detonating one on a dead space rock hundreds of thousands of miles away? Well there were actually quite a few. For one thing, the research team feared it would interfere with future scientific investigation. For instance, it would cause problems for measuring the Moon's natural background radiation.\n\nMore importantly, the US already had long-term plans for manned lunar exploration and even colonization, and they worried about the danger fallout would pose for other explorers. Again, you might wonder why they treated the entire lunar surface with more deference than New Mexico or the Bikini Atoll, but unfortunately, none of the leaked documents explain this rationale.\n\nHowever, by far the biggest concern was… **missing**. Keep in mind that in 1958, no man-made object had yet reached the Moon. The first was the Soviet Luna 2 mission in September 1959. It wasn't a given that the scientists could aim the rocket well enough over such a long range, and there was a slight fear it could miss the Moon but come close enough to wrap back around and shoot back to Earth. A more probable scenario was that the rocket would fail to leave the atmosphere or Earth orbit altogether, which would be a major risk if it fell back down and landed in a populated area.\n\nAs a result of these concerns, as well as the **Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty** signed in 1963 and the **Outer Space Treaty** signed in 1967, not to mention arguably more spectacular feats like landing men on the Moon, the Air Force eventually abandoned Project A119 just as the Soviets did with their similar **Project E-4**. However, it's difficult to say exactly when it was canceled due to the lack of documents and facts that have come to light or been released.\n\n## Big Names\n\nThe public was totally unaware of Project A119 at the time and remained in the dark until **1999** when writer **Keay Davidson** discovered two scientific papers related to it: *Possible Contribution of Lunar Nuclear Weapons Detonations to the Solution of Some Problems in Planetary Astronomy* and *Radiological Contamination of the Moon by Nuclear Weapons Detonations*. These papers were listed on a 1959 application for an academic scholarship at the Miller Institute at University of California, Berkeley, by none other than famous astronomer and science educator **Carl Sagan**, who had died in 1996.\n\nIn his application, Sagan discussed Project A119 and his contributions to its goals and research. He had apparently joined the team as a doctoral student under his advisor, astronomer **Gerard Kuiper**, and was primarily tasked with researching the potential expansion of the nuclear explosion's resulting dust cloud, an essential part of making the detonation easily visible to the American people to boost morale.\n\nDavidson published his findings in his biography *Carl Sagan: A Life* which was followed by a review in *Nature* that went into detail regarding these two papers and Project A119. It also reiterated Davidson's speculation that Sagan's inclusion of this information in his application constituted a breach of national security and the project's confidentiality.\n\nWith the story spreading fast, Leonard Reiffel, head of the ARF research team at the Illinois Institute of Technology, broke the silence to speak to the media and confirm the existence of the project. He also revealed that the team had been aware of Sagan's leaking of project details in his application, and that they did indeed consider it breach of confidentiality, though nothing ever came of it.\n\nReiffel's comments caused quite a stir and prompted a request via the **Freedom of Information Act** for documents regarding the project. The Illinois Institute of Technology consequently released *A Study of Lunar Research Flights–Volume I*, now credited to Reiffel, but revealed that most other documents had been destroyed during the 1980s. The US government also refused to confirm the existence of Project A119, a stance they maintain to the present day.\n\n## Looking Back\n\nWhen Leonard Reiffel revealed the details of Project A119, he wasn't exactly full of praise. In fact, he said he was **\"horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered.\"** 73 years old at the time, Reiffel claimed he had tried to dissuade the Air Force officials that had hired him. \"I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar environment,\" he stated. He went on to say he feared the explosion's resulting crater would have ruined the \"man in the moon\" that we all know so well. Plus, if it had indeed coincided with the Soviet Project E-4, it likely would have led to a militarization of space and a race to achieve military rather than scientific dominance on the Moon.\n\nWith the project now public knowledge, if unofficially, many public figures and academics also offered their condemnation. For example, **David Lowry**, a British environmental consultant and anti-nuclear activist, called the project **\"obscene.\"** \"To think that the first contact human beings would have had with another world would have been to explode a nuclear bomb,\" he said. \"Had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking 'one giant step for mankind.'\"\n\nHowever, Lowry also stated his doubts that A119 was truly a relic of the space race. He also said, \"The US has always wanted to militarize space and some of the fanciful ideas currently being put forward will seem as incredible as the idea of nuking the moon in the Fifties seems today.\"\n\nAlthough he didn't provide any details of \"ideas currently being put forward,\" it is plausible that nuclear explosions on the Moon could be in the future or that major nuclear and military powers are already considering them as plans for lunar exploration and colonization. That's because while the original Project A119 was solely focused on swaying public opinion and improving morale, a more open-minded approach could likely find scientific uses for a nuclear explosion on the Moon.\n\nMost notably, small nuclear detonations lacking the requirement for visibility from Earth could be used to study both the geological composition of the lunar surface as well as the effects of nuclear explosions and radiation on the Moon. In fact, such studies had already been proposed by **Edward Teller**, the physicist credited with the development of the hydrogen bomb, in 1957 prior to the inception of Project A119. The findings could inform plans to establish manned bases on the Moon powered by nuclear reactors, such as those envisioned under **NASA's Artemis Program**.\n\nIn other words, even though the space race was never punctuated with the awe and/or horror of looking up to see a mushroom cloud rising from the face of the Moon, the work of Project A119 and the scientists involved like Carl Sagan and Leonard Reiffel might not have totally been for nothing. Who knows, the first nuclear explosion on the Moon might not be a rocket from Earth at all but detonated by explorers on the lunar surface itself.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- Project A119 was a US Air Force plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon.\n- The project was developed in the 1950s to boost American morale after the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch.\n- Carl Sagan was involved in Project A119, researching the visibility of the nuclear explosion's dust cloud.\n- Concerns about scientific interference, lunar exploration, and missile accuracy led to the project's abandonment.\n- The US government has never officially acknowledged Project A119, despite leaked documents and testimonies.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What was Project A119?\n\nProject A119 was a top-secret plan developed by the US Air Force in the 1950s to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon.\n\n### Why was Project A119 proposed?\n\nProject A119 was proposed to boost American morale after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, taking a lead in the space race and symbolizing their technological advantage.\n\n### What type of nuclear warhead was considered for Project A119?\n\nThe team settled on a W25 warhead, a small bomb based on nuclear fission, with a yield of just 1.7 kilotonnes.\n\n### Who led the research for Project A119?\n\nThe research for Project A119 was led by Leonard Reiffel at the Armour Research Foundation (ARF) at the Illinois Institute of Technology.\n\n### What was one of the main concerns about Project A119?\n\nOne of the main concerns was the potential interference with future scientific investigation of the Moon, as well as the danger of fallout for future lunar explorers.\n\n### What role did Carl Sagan play in Project A119?\n\nCarl Sagan was a doctoral student involved in Project A119, tasked with researching the potential expansion of the nuclear explosion's resulting dust cloud.\n\n### What was the Soviet Union's similar project to A119?\n\nThe Soviet Union had a similar project called Project E-4, which also aimed to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon.\n\n### Why was Project A119 eventually abandoned?\n\nProject A119 was abandoned due to concerns about scientific interference, potential dangers to future explorers, and international treaties like the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty.\n\n### What was the public's reaction to the revelation of Project A119?\n\nMany public figures and academics condemned the project, calling it \"obscene\" and expressing horror that such a gesture was ever considered.\n\n### What potential scientific uses could a nuclear explosion on the Moon have?\n\nA nuclear explosion on the Moon could be used to study the geological composition of the lunar surface and the effects of nuclear explosions and radiation on the Moon.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original MegaProjects video: The Shocking Plan to Nuke the Moon (Project A119)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOybccwf6E)\n- [https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4189254](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4189254)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowry)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis)\n- [http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/E3/E3orig.htm](http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/E3/E3orig.htm)\n- [https://www.visualcapitalist.com/largest-nuclear-explosions](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/largest-nuclear-explosions)\n- [https://nypost.com/2017/05/01/usa-and-ussr-planned-to-nuke-the-moon-out-of-existence/](https://nypost.com/2017/05/01/usa-and-ussr-planned-to-nuke-the-moon-out-of-existence/)\n- [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W25_(nuclear_warhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W25_(nuclear_warhead)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Pink_moon_2023.jpg) by Shaik Aadil Iftikhaar / openverse, cc0.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/project-a119-nuke-moon.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/project-a119-nuke-moon datePublished: 2026-06-16 dateModified: 2026-06-16 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/QuOybccwf6E/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 2864c0bfcea3948ff2b2ceb6e4c1800149e219d977518aea506cfd3c0ee3217d tokens: 4136 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/project-a119-nuke-moon.md.summary.md --- Bright, transient and majestic, humanity has long been inspired by the Moon. She's been a focus of myth, a guide for explorers and a muse for poets. As children, many of us have pondered her pocked surface and imagined faces or omens. But have you ever been so enamored by the Moon that you just wanted to… blow it up? Well if you did, you might fit right in in the US Air Force. It just so happens that in the 50s, enough Air Force officials and scientists were interested in shooting a nuclear warhead at the Moon that an entire top-secret plan was developed: **Project A119**. Though the US government has never officially acknowledged its existence, documents and testimonies regarding the project have begun leaking since the turn of the century, implicating some big names, not to mention some crazy engineering and physics. ## Behind in the Race On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union took a major lead in the space race by launching **Sputnik 1**, the first man-made satellite put into orbit. This led to what's become known as the **"Sputnik crisis."** The American public was considerably discouraged by the USSR's major technological achievement, and not just because it symbolized their lead in aerospace science. Rather, Sputnik meant the United States was suddenly vulnerable to Russian missile attacks. At the time, US plans to launch their own satellite used a rocket with 150,000 pounds or 670,000 Newtons of thrust, meaning the satellite could only weigh about 21.5 pounds, under 10 kilograms. Yet Sputnik weighed more than eight times as much at a whopping 184 pounds or 83 kilograms, meaning the Soviet R-7 rocket that launched it into orbit produced one million pounds or 4.4 million Newtons of thrust. If the USSR could produce a rocket this powerful, it meant they could make ICBMs that could likely reach American soil. Americans were anxious and demoralized, which was only made worse by the US Navy's **Project Vanguard's** two failed attempts to launch a smaller American satellite soon after. Now, most people know that the United States eventually did launch their own satellite, Explorer 1, and had the last word in the space race after Apollo 11 put men on the Moon, but what many don't know is how many other eccentric ideas floated about the US government and military to reassure the American public in the short term. Project A119 was just one of these. Research began in **May 1958** through the **Armour Research Foundation**, or ARF, at the Illinois Institute of Technology and was led by the US Air Force. The ARF had already been studying the effects of nuclear explosions since 1949, so it was easy to shift to studying their effects on the lunar environment specifically. They were inspired by rumors in American newspapers that the Soviet Union was planning to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, which happened to coincide with a lunar eclipse on 7 November 1957. Such a plan did exist, but documents discovered thus far only date the plans from 1958. Either way, no bomb went off on 7 November, so the US government believed that if they could set off an explosion of their own, it would show a technological advantage and raise the public's morale. ## But Should We? ARF's team at the Illinois Institute of Technology was led by **Leonard Reiffel** who was adamant that the rate of the US Air Force's development of ICBMs would make the project feasible by 1959. If they addressed certain issues, Reiffel believed they could hit a target on the surface of the Moon with an accuracy of under two miles. The first issue was the size of the bomb. The team originally wanted to detonate a full hydrogen bomb, but the Air Force rejected this idea since it would require a payload too heavy for the rocket. Instead, the team settled on a **W25 warhead**, a small bomb only based on nuclear fission, unlike the fusion of the hydrogen bomb. Weighing only 220 pounds or 100 kilograms, the W25 had a yield of just **1.7 kilotonnes**, a mere 10 percent that of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and just .01 percent of the Castle Bravo, the United States' most powerful hydrogen bomb at the time—and to this day—with a yield of 15 megatonnes. As you might imagine, this meant the W25 explosion would be much harder to see than the massive burst of light from the hydrogen bomb originally envisioned. As a result, ARF decided they'd have to detonate the bomb along the Moon's **terminator**, the dividing line of twilight between the light of the sun and the darkness of the Moon's shadow. This would make the light of the explosion the most visible while simultaneously allowing sunlight to reflect off the resulting dust cloud and make it visible as well. At first glance, this all seemed simple enough, and you might think, if the US government could detonate so many bombs in the desert and on Pacific Islands, what would be the problem with detonating one on a dead space rock hundreds of thousands of miles away? Well there were actually quite a few. For one thing, the research team feared it would interfere with future scientific investigation. For instance, it would cause problems for measuring the Moon's natural background radiation. More importantly, the US already had long-term plans for manned lunar exploration and even colonization, and they worried about the danger fallout would pose for other explorers. Again, you might wonder why they treated the entire lunar surface with more deference than New Mexico or the Bikini Atoll, but unfortunately, none of the leaked documents explain this rationale. However, by far the biggest concern was… **missing**. Keep in mind that in 1958, no man-made object had yet reached the Moon. The first was the Soviet Luna 2 mission in September 1959. It wasn't a given that the scientists could aim the rocket well enough over such a long range, and there was a slight fear it could miss the Moon but come close enough to wrap back around and shoot back to Earth. A more probable scenario was that the rocket would fail to leave the atmosphere or Earth orbit altogether, which would be a major risk if it fell back down and landed in a populated area. As a result of these concerns, as well as the **Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty** signed in 1963 and the **Outer Space Treaty** signed in 1967, not to mention arguably more spectacular feats like landing men on the Moon, the Air Force eventually abandoned Project A119 just as the Soviets did with their similar **Project E-4**. However, it's difficult to say exactly when it was canceled due to the lack of documents and facts that have come to light or been released. ## Big Names The public was totally unaware of Project A119 at the time and remained in the dark until **1999** when writer **Keay Davidson** discovered two scientific papers related to it: *Possible Contribution of Lunar Nuclear Weapons Detonations to the Solution of Some Problems in Planetary Astronomy* and *Radiological Contamination of the Moon by Nuclear Weapons Detonations*. These papers were listed on a 1959 application for an academic scholarship at the Miller Institute at University of California, Berkeley, by none other than famous astronomer and science educator **Carl Sagan**, who had died in 1996. In his application, Sagan discussed Project A119 and his contributions to its goals and research. He had apparently joined the team as a doctoral student under his advisor, astronomer **Gerard Kuiper**, and was primarily tasked with researching the potential expansion of the nuclear explosion's resulting dust cloud, an essential part of making the detonation easily visible to the American people to boost morale. Davidson published his findings in his biography *Carl Sagan: A Life* which was followed by a review in *Nature* that went into detail regarding these two papers and Project A119. It also reiterated Davidson's speculation that Sagan's inclusion of this information in his application constituted a breach of national security and the project's confidentiality. With the story spreading fast, Leonard Reiffel, head of the ARF research team at the Illinois Institute of Technology, broke the silence to speak to the media and confirm the existence of the project. He also revealed that the team had been aware of Sagan's leaking of project details in his application, and that they did indeed consider it breach of confidentiality, though nothing ever came of it. Reiffel's comments caused quite a stir and prompted a request via the **Freedom of Information Act** for documents regarding the project. The Illinois Institute of Technology consequently released *A Study of Lunar Research Flights–Volume I*, now credited to Reiffel, but revealed that most other documents had been destroyed during the 1980s. The US government also refused to confirm the existence of Project A119, a stance they maintain to the present day. ## Looking Back When Leonard Reiffel revealed the details of Project A119, he wasn't exactly full of praise. In fact, he said he was **"horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered."** 73 years old at the time, Reiffel claimed he had tried to dissuade the Air Force officials that had hired him. "I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar environment," he stated. He went on to say he feared the explosion's resulting crater would have ruined the "man in the moon" that we all know so well. Plus, if it had indeed coincided with the Soviet Project E-4, it likely would have led to a militarization of space and a race to achieve military rather than scientific dominance on the Moon. With the project now public knowledge, if unofficially, many public figures and academics also offered their condemnation. For example, **David Lowry**, a British environmental consultant and anti-nuclear activist, called the project **"obscene."** "To think that the first contact human beings would have had with another world would have been to explode a nuclear bomb," he said. "Had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking 'one giant step for mankind.'" However, Lowry also stated his doubts that A119 was truly a relic of the space race. He also said, "The US has always wanted to militarize space and some of the fanciful ideas currently being put forward will seem as incredible as the idea of nuking the moon in the Fifties seems today." Although he didn't provide any details of "ideas currently being put forward," it is plausible that nuclear explosions on the Moon could be in the future or that major nuclear and military powers are already considering them as plans for lunar exploration and colonization. That's because while the original Project A119 was solely focused on swaying public opinion and improving morale, a more open-minded approach could likely find scientific uses for a nuclear explosion on the Moon. Most notably, small nuclear detonations lacking the requirement for visibility from Earth could be used to study both the geological composition of the lunar surface as well as the effects of nuclear explosions and radiation on the Moon. In fact, such studies had already been proposed by **Edward Teller**, the physicist credited with the development of the hydrogen bomb, in 1957 prior to the inception of Project A119. The findings could inform plans to establish manned bases on the Moon powered by nuclear reactors, such as those envisioned under **NASA's Artemis Program**. In other words, even though the space race was never punctuated with the awe and/or horror of looking up to see a mushroom cloud rising from the face of the Moon, the work of Project A119 and the scientists involved like Carl Sagan and Leonard Reiffel might not have totally been for nothing. Who knows, the first nuclear explosion on the Moon might not be a rocket from Earth at all but detonated by explorers on the lunar surface itself. ## Key Takeaways - Project A119 was a US Air Force plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon. - The project was developed in the 1950s to boost American morale after the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch. - Carl Sagan was involved in Project A119, researching the visibility of the nuclear explosion's dust cloud. - Concerns about scientific interference, lunar exploration, and missile accuracy led to the project's abandonment. - The US government has never officially acknowledged Project A119, despite leaked documents and testimonies. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What was Project A119? Project A119 was a top-secret plan developed by the US Air Force in the 1950s to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon. ### Why was Project A119 proposed? Project A119 was proposed to boost American morale after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, taking a lead in the space race and symbolizing their technological advantage. ### What type of nuclear warhead was considered for Project A119? The team settled on a W25 warhead, a small bomb based on nuclear fission, with a yield of just 1.7 kilotonnes. ### Who led the research for Project A119? The research for Project A119 was led by Leonard Reiffel at the Armour Research Foundation (ARF) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. ### What was one of the main concerns about Project A119? One of the main concerns was the potential interference with future scientific investigation of the Moon, as well as the danger of fallout for future lunar explorers. ### What role did Carl Sagan play in Project A119? Carl Sagan was a doctoral student involved in Project A119, tasked with researching the potential expansion of the nuclear explosion's resulting dust cloud. ### What was the Soviet Union's similar project to A119? The Soviet Union had a similar project called Project E-4, which also aimed to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon. ### Why was Project A119 eventually abandoned? Project A119 was abandoned due to concerns about scientific interference, potential dangers to future explorers, and international treaties like the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty. ### What was the public's reaction to the revelation of Project A119? Many public figures and academics condemned the project, calling it "obscene" and expressing horror that such a gesture was ever considered. ### What potential scientific uses could a nuclear explosion on the Moon have? A nuclear explosion on the Moon could be used to study the geological composition of the lunar surface and the effects of nuclear explosions and radiation on the Moon. ## Sources - [Original MegaProjects video: The Shocking Plan to Nuke the Moon (Project A119)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOybccwf6E) - [https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4189254](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4189254) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowry) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vanguard) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis) - [http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/E3/E3orig.htm](http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/E3/E3orig.htm) - [https://www.visualcapitalist.com/largest-nuclear-explosions](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/largest-nuclear-explosions) - [https://nypost.com/2017/05/01/usa-and-ussr-planned-to-nuke-the-moon-out-of-existence/](https://nypost.com/2017/05/01/usa-and-ussr-planned-to-nuke-the-moon-out-of-existence/) - [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W25_(nuclear_warhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W25_(nuclear_warhead) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Pink_moon_2023.jpg) by Shaik Aadil Iftikhaar / openverse, cc0. ## Related Coverage