Why did US once plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the moon?
In 1958, amid Sputnik panic, the US Air Force's Project A119 aimed to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon for a visible flash proving technological superiority over the Soviets. Led by Leonard Reiffel with Carl Sagan's input, it was scrapped due to fallout risks, failure chances, and scientific backlash. The project was declassified in 2000.