In a secret 1958 project, the Air Force considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon.

Scientists believed then they would learn a lot from the exercise, code named Project A119, and the US might gain ground in the Cold War space race with the Soviets. What’s more, the blast would perhaps be visible on Earth, boosting morale at home and cowing our enemies abroad. The risks (including the blast affecting humankind’s home) were deemed to outweigh the benefits, though, and the US government turned its attention instead to putting a man on the Moon, which it predicted would be more popular, and which NASA would be first to accomplish, a decade later. The Air Force’s report on the potential bombing, titled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights,” remained secret until the project’s leader disclosed it in 2000.