Nuking The Moon

With Russia winning the Space Race in the late 1950s, the U.S. Air Force decided America needed a morale boost. Their solution: detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon and time it so Americans back on Earth could see the mushroom cloud. Though the explosion would have contaminated the lunar landscape forever, the Air Force pressed ahead with the idea, aided by early supporter Carl Sagan. Cooler heads in Washington eventually prevailed, after it was decided that putting a man on the Moon, instead of a nuclear bomb, was a better way to restore national pride.