United States Developed A Top-Secret Plan To Detonate A Nuclear Bomb On The Surface Of The Moon.

Fortunately, the project was cancelled and never carried out. It is believed that the purpose of this project was to show the superiority of the United States of America over the Soviet Union during the cold war.

It survived the height of the cold war. At odds were the former soviet union, and the united states, both attempting to propagandize and posture their way to a win in a geopolitical. The US was falling after the Soviets launched their 1st satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. 

To ignore losing the propaganda war, the US went into scramble mode. First, it launched its individual, Explorer 1. Then it assembled a team of brightest and the best, including a young Carl Sagan to solve how to blow up the Moon in 1958. Researchers believed that discharge on the surface of the Moon so long as it avoided in a lunar crater would kill 2 birds with one.

First, scientists could investigate the debris, if they eternally made it to the moon which was still a few years from happening. But even more importantly, the report would produce a mushroom could and a flash of light clearly visible from earth an obvious show of strength to the soviets.

As December 1958 turned to January 1958, the US wised up and put a stop to the plan. Its top brass feared the negative public reaction of such a blast and the fear that the missile could miss the Moon entirely, returning to an unknown location on Earth.