It sounds like sci-fi, but it’s 100% real. In the late 1950s, during the height of the Cold War, the United States developed Project A119, a top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon.

Why? Not to destroy it—just to make a point. The U.S. wanted a visible explosion on the lunar surface to show technological dominance over the Soviet Union.

The project involved top scientists (including a young Carl Sagan), complex calculations, and a terrifying amount of optimism. Fortunately, the plan was scrapped. Blowing up the Moon didn’t seem like the best PR move.

Instead, the space race continued in less explosive ways… ending with Neil Armstrong taking a gentler approach in 1969.