Starfish Prime: What a Blast!
In 1962, the US sent a Thor rocket carrying a 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead into space and detonated it at an altitude of 250 miles. The test was to see if it was possible to intercept Soviet ICBMs in space before their re-entry into the atmosphere.
Unexpected Side Effects
The experiment resulted in unexpected side effects, though… It produced an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to wreak havoc on electrical equipment 800 miles away in Hawaii! Radio and telephone exchanges went offline, streetlights blew up, and electrical devices tripped off or misbehaved.
Furthermore, some radiation got trapped between the different layers of our atmosphere and ended up damaging or destroying up to 6 satellites!
Unexpected Beauties in the Sky
On the plus side, people in New Zealand got to see very pretty illuminations and an Aurora Australis in the night sky, while people in Honolulu got to experience an Aurora Borealis for the first time…
-RBM.
