Physicist reveals why the US once concocted a plan to nuke the moon

Detonating a nuclear bomb on the moon isn't some far-fetched, apocalyptic science-fiction plot. It was an actual secret U.S. government plan back in 1958, and now the project's leader, 85-year-old physicist Leonard Reiffel, is speaking out. "This was a concept to sort of reassure people that the United States could maintain a mutually assured deterrence, and therefore avoid any huge conflagration on the Earth," he said, reminding us that the Cold War was going on then. He says they planned to detonate an atomic bomb on the moon, then build lunar nuclear launch sites in case the Soviets hit us first and wiped out our Earth-based ability to strike back. Scary stuff. Fortunately, Project A-119 was abandoned — we think. [Source]

Click to see more on msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.