Project A119: The Day America Almost Nuked the Moon

The Plan Was Simple: Blow Up the Moon on Camera

May 1958. Special Weapons Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Classification: TOP SECRET // SCI.

The United States Air Force commissions the Armor Research Foundation (part of Illinois Institute of Technology) to conduct a feasibility study titled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights”. Official codename: Project A119.

Real objective: Detonate a W25 nuclear warhead (yield 1.7 kilotons, weight 298 lbs / 135 kg, diameter 17.4 inches) on the lunar terminator so the fireball and expanding dust cloud would be clearly visible from Earth with the naked eye.

Intended message to the Soviet Union: “We can reach your backyard in space and turn it into a radioactive hellscape whenever we want.”. Oh, it's even more batshit from here...

The Team Behind the Madness

Project Director: Dr. Leonard Reiffel, former Manhattan Project physicist, deputy director at NASA’s Apollo program later.

Lead scientist (dust-cloud dynamics): A certain 24-year-old Carl Sagan, Cornell graduate student.

Other key members: Gerard Kuiper (lunar geology) and Edward Teller was consulted informally.

Sagan’s specific task: Model how a nuclear explosion in vacuum would behave. No air = no shockwave, but the vaporized lunar regolith would expand into a glowing cone visible for minutes.

Technical Details That Actually Existed

• Warhead: W25 (air-to-air nuclear warhead already in production for the Genie rocket).
• Proposed delivery: Modified Atlas ICBM or early Thor-Able rocket.
• Target zone: Lunar terminator near Mare Crisium or Sinus Medii for maximum Earth visibility.
• Explosion altitude: Surface or very low (to kick up maximum dust).
• Expected visual effect: Bright flash followed by a slowly expanding dust cloud lasting 10-20 minutes, brighter than Venus.
• Fallout: Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 would coat the Moon for centuries.

Nuking the Moon a decade before sending men to it seemed like a great idea I'm sure. But...

Why It Was Cancelled

By mid-1959 the science team (especially Reiffel and Kuiper) convinced the Air Force that:

• Radioactive contamination would make future lunar landings impossible for decades.
• The blast could create artificial craters indistinguishable from natural ones, ruining geology forever.
• If the rocket failed and exploded on launch, the U.S. would scatter its own nuke over its territory.
• Public backlash would be catastrophic once the plan inevitably leaked.

The Soviets ran an almost identical project (Project E-4) under Sergei Korolev and cancelled it for the same reasons.

How Close Were They?

Extremely. The final 10-volume report was delivered in June 1959. The Air Force had the bomb, the rocket, the trajectory, and the math. All that was missing was the launch order.

Declassification and Confirmation

1999-2000: Leonard Reiffel breaks 40 years of silence in interviews with Nature and The Guardian.
Carl Sagan accidentally revealed his role in his 1994 biography application (breaching classification).
Full declassification confirmed by USAF in the early 2000s.

Theories and Likelihood

1. Pure Cold War Propaganda (Official & Confirmed)
Likelihood: 95%

2. Scientific Side Benefits
Likelihood: 4%

3. Warning Shot to Extraterrestrials
Likelihood: 1%

“The chief purpose was to cause a huge explosion on the Moon’s terminator that would be visible from Earth and say to the Soviets: Look what we can do.”
- Dr. Leonard Reiffel, BBC interview, 2000

“It was clear the main aim was a Cold War propaganda effort. A show of force.”
- Carl Sagan (via Reiffel), Nature, May 2000

Detailed Timeline

Sources

1. Nature (4th May 2000) - Sagan breached security by revealing US work on a lunar bomb project
2. Wikipedia - Project A119 (extensive references)
3. History.com - Carl Sagan and the Plan to Nuke the Moon

Final Verdict

100% REAL. CANCELLED ONLY BECAUSE IT WOULD HAVE POISONED THE MOON FOREVER. The bomb existed. The rocket existed. Everything was ready to go. The only thing that saved the Moon from being nuked was, for once, common sense prevailing over Cold War insanity.