The outbreak of the Cold War and the arms race contributed to the rapid development of rocketry in the USSR. If in the early 1950s we were still producing the R-1 rocket, essentially an improved version of the V-2, then on October 4, 1957, a powerful multistage rocket launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite into orbit. For American scientists and politicians, this event came as an unpleasant surprise. And the successful launch of a satellite weighing 84 kilograms spoke volumes to military specialists.
A sensitive blow was dealt to the myth of the unconditional scientific, technical and military superiority of the United States. And when, just a month later, our second satellite, weighing about 0.5 tons, went into orbit, and even with the dog Laika on board, and behind him, at the beginning of 1958, the third one weighing 1327 kilograms, the Americans began to develop a plan for a "retaliatory move ".
American nuclear physicist Leonard Raiffel, who lives in Chicago, in an interview with a local newspaper correspondent in May 2000 said that at the height of the Cold War, the US Air Force command asked American scientists to prepare and carry out a nuclear explosion on the lunar surface. Raiffel took part in the development of such a project.
The main purpose of the explosion, he said, would be to create a grand spectacle at a time when the Soviet Union was overtaking America in its rivalry for space exploration.
“While working on the project,” Raiffel said, “we did not get to the stage of choosing a specific type of explosive device and launch vehicle, but we determined what visual effect such an explosion would have. People could see a bright flash, especially clearly visible if the explosion occurred on a new moon, when the side of the moon is facing the earth, not illuminated by the sun. Possibly, clouds of dust and lunar debris raised by the explosion above the Moon would also be visible.
The project, on which scientists worked from late 1958 to mid-1959, was highly classified, had the code designation "A 119" and was called "Development of research flights to the moon." The project was ordered by the Air Force Special Weapons Center.
One of the objectives of the project was to determine the possible scientific results in the implementation of a nuclear explosion on the moon. However, any alleged discoveries, according to Raiffel, "could not compensate for the losses that humanity would have suffered from the radioactive contamination of the moon after the explosion."
