Banning Nukes in Space: The Starfish Prime & Project K Effect
Both the United States and Russia have detonated nuclear warheads in space—isn’t that a little surprising?
In the 1960s, little was known about how the relatively new weapons of mass destruction would act in the Earth’s atmosphere, spurring both countries to experimentally find out. The United States therein developed the Starfish Prime mission, as the Soviets raced to create the Project K initiative.
According to a 1982 Department of Defense report, Starfish Prime launched in July 1962, when the U.S. sent up a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear warhead on a Thor missile and detonated it about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. The missile was launched about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from Hawaii but the effects from the tests were seen around the equator. In fact, as a result, the detonation at such a high altitude caused widespread auroras throughout the Pacific, disabled several satellites (e.g. a British satellite named Ariel) as radioactive particles from the burst came in contact with them, and temporarily knocked out radio systems and the electrical grid on Hawaii.
When the former Soviet Union conducted its own test as part of Project K, it did so at a slightly lower orbit and “fried systems on the ground, including underground cables and a power plant,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
As a result of Starfish Prime and Project K, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty a year later, in 1963, which prohibited further testing of nuclear weapons in space. This Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty banned all above-ground nuclear testing, although France and China continued above-ground tests for a few more decades.
Takeaways and Resources 🚀
2 Takeaways
Policy Is Key: The PTBT mentioned earlier in this article has been largely successful at preventing further above-ground nuclear tests (while carving out an exception for underground tests). Since the treaty went into effect in October 1963, 123 other states have become party to the treaty. Ten states have signed but not ratified the treaty. There are 60 states that have not signed the PTBT, including the nuclear states of China, France, and North Korea.
Radiation Effects Are Lasting: In 1963, it was reported that Starfish Prime had created a belt of MeV electrons, and in 1968, it was reported that some Starfish electrons had remained in the atmosphere for 5 years. These tests overall thereby serve as a warning of what could happen if Earth is blasted by high doses of radiation!
2 Resources
Read the DoD Declassified Report here: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA136820.pdf
Read documentation about the aftermath of the tests: https://www.science.org/content/article/us-tests-ways-sweep-space-clean-radiation-after-nuclear-attack
NASA Photo of the Day 🌔
Aurorae were seen widely after Starfish Prime, a 1962 nuclear test in space. Citation: Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo
Daily Opportunity Drop 🌌
Check out this radiation engineer posting at Northrop Grumman for those interested working in Reston, VA: https://www.google.com/search?q=radiation+engineer+jobs&rlz=1C5GCCM_en___US1127&oq=radiation+engineer+j&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&udm=8#vhid=vt%3D20/docid%3D5Tnmu4cc4QLP-396AAAAAA%3D%3D&vssid=jobs-detail-viewer&sxsrf=ADLYWIJEJUYL6mtS7j7pa84kmjqBpTwZOw:1736716036530