History.com: Why the Air Force Almost Blasted the Moon With an H Bomb

Detonating a thermonuclear weapon on the moon? It sounds like the bizarre scheme of a deranged comic-book villain -- not a project initiated inside the U.S. government. But in 1958, as the Cold War space race was heating up, the U.S. Air Force launched just such an endeavor. Called Project A119, it harnessed the talents of some of America's top scientists. How could this happen?