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The time the US nearly nuked the Moon

Find out why America once planned to detonate an atomic bomb on the Moon

The time the US nearly nuked the Moon
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StarsInsider
09/06/2025 13:00 ‧ 3 hours ago | StarsInsider

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On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the Moon. The Americans had managed to put a human being on the surface of Earth's natural satellite and history was made. The Moon was completely untouched back then, but if America's Project A119 had gone ahead a few years prior, things would have been very different.

'A Study of Lunar Research Flights,' better known as Project A119, was a top-secret plan developed by the US Air Force in 1958. The goal was to detonate an atomic bomb on the Moon. But why did the US want to nuke the Moon, and why didn't they go ahead with the plan?

Click through the following gallery to find out.

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