New details about a U.S. proposal to blow up a nuclear bomb on the moon as a Cold War 'show of dominance' have been revealed in a recently-published book. The secret mission, code-named Project A119, was conceived at the dawn of the space race by an Air Force division located at New Mexico's Kirtland Air Force Base. A 1959 report explained plans to explode a nuclear bomb on the moon as a show of force'A nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon was definitely one of the stupider things the government could do,' said John Greenewald, Jr., author of Secrets from the Vault. Sagan was hired by Dr Leonard Reiffel, a physicist who studied the possibility of a lunar nuclear bomb, to work with him in Chicago. 'The Air Force wanted a mushroom cloud so large it would be visible on earth.

Source: Daily Mail June 21, 2020 00:29 UTC