The plan to NUKE the moon
There’s an alternate history timeline where the United States detonated a nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon.
James Bond villain type scheme, right? But it was something the US really considered in 1958 after Sputnik put the Soviet Union ahead in the space race. They figured they could make an explosion visible from Earth. Carl Sagan (before he was famous) was one of the researchers who were all like “maybe this is a bad idea.”
Still laughing. Has anyone written an alt-history book about this? I can’t believe I had never heard of it until now. It’s so American. Nuke the goddamn moon. I’m glad we’re in the universe where we landed on the moon instead. Our timeline is stupid, but it could always be stupider.