The only difference was the choice of payload.
On their first attempt, the rocket exploded on launch pad.
The failure was widely derided in the press.
It wascalled variouslyakaputnik, flopnik, puffnikandstayputnik.
It weighted just 14 kilograms.
Soviet rockets became progressively more powerful with each launch, and so did their payload.
Sputnik 2 was over half a ton.
So they turned to what they knew and did bestbuilding nuclear weapons and blowing them up.
Why not send an atomic bomb to the moon and detonate it for all the world to see?
An event such as this would be so spectacular that it would firmly put America back into the game.
And thats how Project A119 was born.
Instead, a smaller rig with a relatively low yield of 1.7 kiloton was chosen.
Work on Project A119 continued until January 1959, when suddenly it was abandoned.
Project A119 was made classified and all participants were vowed to secrecy.
As these things go, this was small, Dr. Reiffel toldthe NY Times.
It was less than a year and never got to the point of operational planning.
We showed what some of the effects might be.
There were other ways to impress the public that we were not about to be overwhelmed by the Russians.
Thankfully, the thinking changed, Dr. Reiffel added.
I am horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered.
Dr. David Lowry, a British nuclear historian,called theprojects proposal obscene.
