SUBJECT: PROJECT ARGUS AND THE RAINBOW BOMBS                 FILE: UFO2657




                     PROJECT ARGUS and the RAINBOW BOMBS

                  UNITED STATES NUCLEAR DETONATIONS IN SPACE


   Around  1958,   the significant implications of  the  Earth's  magnetic
   fields  and  radiation belts for future military activities  were  what
   drew the attention of government physicists.  Nicholas Christofilos,  a
   physicist working at the University of California's Livermore Radiation
   Laboratory,   developed  techniques to harness and control  the  energy
   released  in  hydorgen fusion reactions.   Christofilos  used  magnetic
   confinment fields.  When the Soviets launched Sputnik I,   Christofilos
   decided  that  the earth's magnetic field could be used to  contain  an
   artificial  band  of relativistic electrons.  He speculated  that  this
   artificial  radiation  belt  could be made intense  enough  to  destroy
   satellites  in orbit.  The belt would produce worldwide radio noise  on
   the  HF  and  VHF  radio  bands  that  carried  the  bulk  of  military
   communications.  By accurately calculating the site for an explosion of
   a nuclear device,  it's effects could be made to occur over a  specific
   target area. Christofilos urged that the government test his postulates
   by  exploding  a  nuclear device in space.  Christofilos  superiors  at
   Livermore  placed his papers under top security control and advised the
   President's Science Advisory group of the matter. The resulting program
   became Project Argus.


                             PROJECT ARGUS TESTS

       Explosion    Locale         Date            Yield       Altitude
       ---------------------------------------------------------------

        Argus I    South Atlantic    Aug 27, 1958    1KT        200KM

        Argus II   South Atlantic    Aug 30, 1958    1KT        250KM

        Argus III  South Atlantic    Sept 6, 1958    1KT        500KM


                          POST-ARGUS TESTING ACTIONS
                          --------------------------
        Starfish   Johnston Island   July, 9 1962  1.4KT        400KM


                      SOVIET NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS IN SPACE
                      ----------------------------------

         USSR       Siberia            Oct 22, 1962  200KT       UNK

         USSR       Siberia            Oct 28, 1962  800KT       UNK

         USSR       Siberia            Nov 1,  1962   1+MT       UNK




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