WI: the USA nukes the moon in 1957

As is well known by now, Project A119 was a US plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the moon. This was planned both due to the Soviet successes in the space program and for scientific purposes. It was motivated in particular by an anonymous source telling the USA it was being planned to celebrate the October Revolution. Eventually, the plan was scrapped because negative public feedback was presumed.

But suppose the following sequence of events happened:

1. In 1951, Stalin is convinced of the idea of a nuke detonation on the moon by a subordinate. He orders the job be ready by 1957, for the 40th anniversary of the USSR.
2. The planning document leaks to the USA, along details of the scale of the preparations. SAC enters panic mode and begins planning a rival detonation.
3. After his ascension, Kruschev cancels the detonation and orders the OTL Sputnik progran. This plan is also leaked to the CIA, but the Dulles brothers believe it to be a decoy story to put the US on the wrong trail.
4. On July 4th, 1957, at 730 pm EST, Americans watching 4th of July fireworks are treated to a small bright flash on the moon. The president addresses the nation that night, proclaiming that acting on credible intelligence that the Soviets were planning a Lunar nuclear detonation, the USA had acted first.
5. 3 months later, the USSR launches the Sputnik satellite and proclaims its peaceful intentions while condemning US aggression.

What are the results of this?
 
As is well known by now, Project A119 was a US plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the moon. This was planned both due to the Soviet successes in the space program and for scientific purposes. It was motivated in particular by an anonymous source telling the USA it was being planned to celebrate the October Revolution. Eventually, the plan was scrapped because negative public feedback was presumed.

But suppose the following sequence of events happened:

1. In 1951, Stalin is convinced of the idea of a nuke detonation on the moon by a subordinate. He orders the job be ready by 1957, for the 40th anniversary of the USSR.
2. The planning document leaks to the USA, along details of the scale of the preparations. SAC enters panic mode and begins planning a rival detonation.
3. After his ascension, Kruschev cancels the detonation and orders the OTL Sputnik progran. This plan is also leaked to the CIA, but the Dulles brothers believe it to be a decoy story to put the US on the wrong trail.
4. On July 4th, 1957, at 730 pm EST, Americans watching 4th of July fireworks are treated to a small bright flash on the moon. The president addresses the nation that night, proclaiming that acting on credible intelligence that the Soviets were planning a Lunar nuclear detonation, the USA had acted first.
5. 3 months later, the USSR launches the Sputnik satellite and proclaims its peaceful intentions while condemning US aggression.

What are the results of this?
It means that Atlas was sped up to host a 2nd stage Centaur five years ahead of OTL, two years ahead of the USSR getting one of their Luna Probes to impact the moon: a little beeping beachball will look positively pathetic as a response
to the USA doing a home run.

A working Atlas-Centaur in 1957 is huge, means that the Mercury program can be jumped to a much more capable Gemini, and no shortcuts that plagued Mercury in haste to keep up with the Soviets.

2nd, no NASA. It stays NACA, while the USAF has its big moment, that ICBMs can do what manned bombers cannot, put a bomb anywhere on Earth. That's easy, after the Moon.

This means that Ike out-stunted Khrushchev in a major way, that the USSR has fallen way behind the USA.

Sputnik seems a toy in comparison, so they may rush trying to get a Man in Space, it's the only thing they can reach for with the R-7 with Vostok crash program. Not a good TL to be a Cosmonaut.
 
Interesting! So perhaps his seeming weak response gets Kruschev knocked out much earlier? Also, how implausible would that speed up be?
 
Interesting! So perhaps his seeming weak response gets Kruschev knocked out much earlier? Also, how implausible would that speed up be?

Not quite ASB, but everything would have to break right for Convair. Centaur came from a 1958 ARPA project for getting a good sized communication satellite in orbit for SAC. Advent, it was called, had delays and was eventually killed, but Centaur lived on, as a very useful upper stage
 
Still feels a little much to me. I hadn't realized that was jumping the gun by 5 years. I would like to discuss the fallout because it seems like it would be hilarious/interesting, but if it has to wait for after Sputnik, the idea of a Lunar nuke becomes increasingly difficult to justify as a realistic reaction.

Perhaps Kruschev eschews publicity and focuses the rocket program entirely on ICBM development, giving the US until the early 60s to try this?
 
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