Brought to you by the people that caused the Dust Bowl (through misguided homesteading acts).

I was reading about this on July 9th, 2010, it is called Starfish Prime. This was part of the project known as Project Fishbowl undertaken by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Defense Atomic Support Agency (agencies of the Government of the United States). Starfish Prime was a nuclear test, which launced a rocket 400 miles into the strasophere and detonated a nuclear warhead. This was the first succesful test out of five planned detonations.

Starfish Prime was the third such scheduled test. The first Starfish test, ended in failure. The rocket engine on the first delivery vehicle failed, and was shot down in the pacific ocean, with radioactive material and rocket parts making landfall on islands in the pacific, as well as in the ocean itself.

Starfish Prime exploded 400 miles over earth. The ultimite effect of this was that radiation belts were formed around the earth, where before there had been none. Gamma radiation, and other radioactive particles fell to earth. Radioactive isotopes were later found to appear in organisms at the bottom of the food chain and soon moved up to the top.

I like think of myself as an optimist. So, let's not dwell on the negative shall we. The test developers became concerned when three satellites in low earth orbit were disabled. The radiation belts that were the result of Starfish Prime caused one-third of all satellites in low earth orbit at that time to fail. The radiation from this foolish experiment destroyed seven satellites by disabling their solar arrays and/or electronics.  Telstar, the first commercial communication satellite ever, was one of those satellites that was completely ruined by the blast.

As Starfish Prime was only the first successful launch of nuclear detonations in earths upper atmosphere and outer space, further investigation is warranted on the ecologically disasterous Operation Fishbowl. This definitely begs the question: "WTF were the people in charge under the influence of when they planned and executed this idiotic stunt?  Who determined that this test was vital to the national security of the United States?

This just boggles my mind that military and government leaders thought that this test was a good idea.  It was once explained to me that presidential politics is like high school, with nukes.  Now I know why.