This is one of my all time favorite quotes, referring to the insane fact that the US decided to nuke the Van Allen belts on the SAME day that James Van Allen announced their discovery.
— Chris Binz (@CRBinz) February 27, 2024
https://t.co/Glro5mE7WM pic.twitter.com/7I4zscsGH4
NPR has a detailed write up, including a video showing the resulting light show:
The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth's atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb's radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might "alter" the natural shape of the belts.