When a Nuke Nearly Killed the Moon Landing

This is a revisit of an old blog I did at PopSci: www.popsci.com...
Additional sources:
Apollo Experience Report - Protection Against Radiation: www.hq.nasa.go...
The Deadly Van Allen Belts: spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/Algebra1/3Page7.pdf/
Explorer 1 and Jupiter-C: history.nasa.gov/sputnik/expinfo.html/
Apollo Spacecraft Chronologies volumes 1 and 2
Fighting for Space: www.amazon.com...
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: www.amazon.com...
***
Want to help keep The Vintage Space alive and get access to my Discord server at the same time? I've also got a PATREON PAGE! Any help is so hugely appreciated. / amyshirateitel
You can also join via KZbin Memberships for the same benefits.
Connect on Facebook: / amyshirateitel
Instagram: / amyshirateitel
Twitter: / amyshirateitel
Book me on Cameo: www.cameo.com/...
***
Music: Brittle Rille by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons...
***
Dress: Vixen by Micheline Pitt. Not sponsored or anything, I just love her and her company values and want to shout out an incredible brand!
#AmyShiraTeitel #History

[@cleteknaub1187]

Amy, as a baby boomer, who grew up enthralled with the space race, I just want to thank you for your work on The Vintage Space. You do a great job! All the very best.

[@jamesfrangione8448]

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Fully agree!

[@byronbuck1762]

Yes Amy, you help us relive great memories and bring great insights

[@thebrunoserge]

OK boomer

[@howardross9614]

I doubt that Amy is old enough to be a boomer! More likely, Gen X. I'm 55 and I'm Gen X. Surely she's not the same age as me!

[@PervertedThang]

@@howardross9614 No one was claiming Amy is a baby boomer.

[@tm502010]

Why have you stopped making videos? Your historical material, and dedicated approach to a proper historical discipline, was absolutely top notch! Love your content! Please come back! ❤

[@benGman69]

I think it was because she didn’t understand how orbital velocity works. I remember her trying to say that it was easier for a distant object to decrease its orbit because of the suns immense gravity. This was unbelievably wrong.

[@johnanderson6946]

@@benGman69 lol thats no reason to stop making videos....people can always keep learning!

[@Thenotfunnyperson]

Come baaackk

[@jzerious4523]

@@benGman69that’s true though

[@woodlanditguy2951]

Yeah, I remember loving her videos. I wonder what happened. I think the idea that "she was wrong about something and stopped making videos" is probably not correct. Space commentary is often wrong but we are all learning and correcting our understanding of space and space tech.

[@rdmsh]

Where are you? Thanks for all the past videos. Found you a few years ago and you resparked my interest in space I’d lost since the 90s. Thank you for all the videos you made and hope you come back one day. PS happy birthday 😊

[@irishsavage8715]

You are creepy dude

[@stevenvicino8687]

I was 10 with my nose glued to a black & white TV in '69 watching Neil and Buzz do the Luna boogie. My mom kept me home 3 days from school when Apollo 13 happened. I watched Columbia from launch to touch-down on its maiden flight and I watched the end flight too. Amy you have excited and educated me so much. I thumb my nose at your critics.

[@gregorydahl]

My gradeschool gathered in hallways and lunchroom to watch the splashdown on televisions . The cheering all through the school was loud when they hit the water . I wasn't aware that it was a failed or aborted landing mission . Ibwas taught to believe " they will make it " whenever concerns or questions arose about landing , or lift off , or orbit , or anything going wrong . So if i heard " will they make it ? " i didn't understand it meant something was kind of bad that time . I just thought it was the usual happy splashdown but oddly with more interest in it .

[@c7042]

I just realized you just stopped making videos about space and have moved on in your life. I've enjoyed your content but I realize people must do what's best for themselves. Thanks for the memories. I'm 75 now. Through your Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo videos have relived my childhood to being an adult experience. I have twin 15 year old grandaughters who are model rocket builder/flyers and visit space museums like Cosmodrome in Hutchinson, Kansas with their dad. Best wishes for your future life. Thank you.

[@Vaughnage25]

I believe she got caught plagiarizing someones work. I believe it was one of her books....don't quite remember.

[@nicholasmaude6906]

@@Vaughnage25 Do you have a link to that allegation? As far as I know Aimee is a very thorough and competent researcher.

[@elwaybeliever]

She's back now

[@ErikPelyukhno]

I have good news for you

[@StephenCole1916]

@@Vaughnage25 She just uploaded a video explaining what happened with her book and why she took a break for awhile.

[@vincelamb4063]

I'm glad you mentioned the role the International Geophysical Year (IGY) played in kicking off the Space Age and the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belts. It was one of many discoveries and projects to come out of the IGY!

[@ramblinman4197]

Me also. I learned about the IGY after hearing Donald Fagen’s song about it. 😎

[@dansv1]

@@ramblinman4197 We were all supposed to get spandex jackets in ‘76.

[@ramblinman4197]

@@dansv1 we sure were! 😁

[@pjimmbojimmbo1990]

The US Forces got great enjoyment of setting off Nukes in those belts. I wonder what damage was done to them?

[@spvillano]

@@pjimmbojimmbo1990 none. A fair amount of excess particle radiation for a few months, then back to normal. We did blow out some street lamps and a microwave link in Honolulu. Russia emulated Starfish Prime and burned down a generator building and fused a crap ton of wire. Then, everyone decided to stop messing with things more powerful than their baddest toys.

[@americannomadnewsthecardbo4339]

Amy you never disappoint

[@mahatmarandy5977]

I notice it's been a long time since you've put up a new video. I know this last couple of years have been really rough for everyone and it's hard to keep from getting discouraged, or to keep the things we want to do from getting derailed. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate this channel and all that you do on here, and always look forward to it. (To my shame, I haven't read your book yet, but it's on my list and I fully intend to). If you want to stop doing this, or are unable to continue, that's ok. We've all changed a lot during the crisis, and sometimes the things we used to do don't make as much sense to us, so if you're moving on to something else, that's ok. Hell, if you're moving on to something that excites you more, then that's great, even! And if I'm reading too much into it, and it's just a backlog or whatever, then forgive me for being shmaltzy. But either way, I wanted you to know that the work you've done on here is greatly appreciated, and thank you very much for doing it. Sincerely. Also, nuking the Van Allen belts to push them off into space was the MacGuffin in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie in 1961. No, really! The plot of the movie is that the Van Allen belts catch fire owing to meteors (It's a stupid movie) and our heroes want to fire an ICBM into the belt to overload it and cause it to explode outward into space stopping the fires. Meanwhile the opposition believes that doing so will destroy the world, and attempt to prevent them. It's a dumb-as-hell movie, but it *does* have a young Barbara Eden and an old Peter Lorre. And Michael Ansara is good as always. But it's still a stupid movie.

[@twohandsandaradio]

Been reading she plagiarized some of her book so read the reviews first.

[@VincentGroenewold]

@@twohandsandaradio Debatable and that was more about articles in the past, for which I'm not that convinced. From what I saw it's more of a "copy" of a story arc, but in science that is very easily the case as those stories are always similar. I've only ever seen her produce wonderful videos and being a wonderful human being, for me that is more than enough.

[@AnnoyingNewsletters]

I just discovered the channel _tonight_ while trying to find a narrated version of a different rocket factoid. 🚀 This is the second one I've watched, recommended from the end card of the NASA crawler video from 8 years ago. I was also wondering why her most recent video is a year old.

[@mahatmarandy5977]

@@VincentGroenewold yup. I’m with you. She ran a pretty great youtube channel and I don’t think she plagiarized anything.

[@mahatmarandy5977]

@@AnnoyingNewsletters Dunno. She hasn’t said. She did mention in a couple videos that she didn’t intend for her channel to be *ONLY* about the 1960s space program, she had wanted it to be about midcentury stuff in general, but she kind of ended up accidentally getting pigeonholed. IIRC she’d wanted to branch out a bit and kept getting told “Stay in your lane,” and I assume she was disappointed by the reception to her book. But honestly I don’t know. I do know the fastest way to lose your passion for a subject, though, is to turn it into your job. So: I dunno. She doesn’t appear to have said, but that’s my hunch.

[@FredQuijada]

The History Channel needs to give you your own show, instead of half the mediocre stuff they produce year after year. Keep up the great work!

[@midnightrambler8866]

They're too busy producing reality shows that have a vague connection to history.

[@randymarsh8936]

But if they did that they would have history on the history channel... That's not how that works anymore

[@richardhill2643]

Too good for the "History" channel. She would need to discuss UFO and alien sightings to get onto History Channel, or discuss NAZI conspiracies, and be low on facts and high on baseless speculation!

[@AnnoyingNewsletters]

I'm not saying it's aliens... But it's aliens 👽 The best thing to come from that meme of a character is a series of regional iconic local business Taco Bell tie in Superbowl commercials. 🌮 His was pre-Superbowl to let us know that some new menu item was coming. There was a Mark from Cleveland, Ohio's Norton Furniture. _I guarantee it._ Law Hawk driving a monster truck. Treehouse Records... A car dealership with someone in a bunny suit. And I can't remember if there were any more.

[@AnnoyingNewsletters]

I just saw a comment on the community tab that she's been on Ancient Aliens. 👽

[@projectfirestart5706]

First off love your content. Been almost a year. Anything coming?

[@therealhari__]

KSP music in the background, Love it!

[@lj5899]

I MISS YOU and your VIDEOS! So well done my friend!

[@irishsavage8715]

You’re fucking creepy dude

[@zhubajie6940]

As a child that grew up in Brevard County, Florida in the 60s and 70s, I always enjoy your videos and jogging my memories. I remember too that Starfish Prime also alerted us to EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) damaging electrical equipment in Hawaii quite a distance from Johnston Atoll from which it was launched.

[@spvillano]

And that commercial satellite getting blown out, yeah, I can picture it, "naw, we found it that way when we got here". Today, that'd get insanely expensive instantly.

[@mikedrop4421]

Growing up on the southern east coast of Florida in the 80's and 90's spoiled me because the space shuttle basically flew overhead (from the ground observers perspective} and yearly trips to Kennedy became almost unimpressive. Good times.

[@michaelarbach]

I just found this channel today and Im really hoping the channel didn't stop

[@terp2726]

Besides the relatively short time Apollo astronauts spent in the belts they were also routed through the weaker areas by the edges instead of straight through the most intense parts.

[@ulrichmeintjes8838]

I’m sitting in my college cafeteria and I look up and see you on the TV. Blew my mind! I still remember you at like 10k subs!

[@johnnyarsenault9124]

Glad to see you back! Superb documentary!👍❤️👌

[@NigelDeForrest-Pearce-cv6ek]

What A Fascinating Video!!!

[@raythackston1960]

Still as awesome as always. And as beautiful as always as well.

[@atlanciaza]

Thank you Amy, I did enjoy it. Despite already knowing about it, it was nice hearing it from you, I'll just call it a refresher course

[@boyo2012]

Yassss!! More of Amy! Love ALL of your content, style of presentation, and dedication to the research behind the topics. Excited for more on both channels!

[@storyspren]

"NASA decided against nuking the Van Allen belts" might be my favorite sentence :D

[@davidvansickle5850]

Great Work!!! Give Pete a hug!!!

[@SOKLYPO]

Thank you very much!! Great video!! I wish you further creative success !!👍💥

[@Peter-55]

Thanks for another great video Amy. Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing your content this year ❤️🇬🇧

[@robwubbena4748]

I love your work, Amy! I hope all is well.

[@dunning-kruger551]

Yay, yay, yay! So happy to see another video! You’re one of my faves.

[@paultraynorbsc627]

Thanks for Sharing Amy 👍👍

[@Electriceye1984bySam]

Glad to see you are “back” and I’m proud you wrote your book too.😁👍🏻🇺🇸

[@mitrickjohns2834]

Nuking the Van Allen belts--now there's a real mid-century wild idea. Fun video!

[@a4dd221]

you're back!! good, I missed your content 🙂

[@WyFoster]

Love your content! Thanks for all the hard work!

[@robertcampbell6349]

Amy. You always find interesting bits of early space exploration history. Always enjoyable to watch.

[@apollolanding1972]

Great video Amy! Two of my favorite subjects mashed together, Apollo and nukes!

[@JamesAllredWriter]

I enjoy your historic presentations, as always well researched.

[@AusNetFan13]

Greetings Amy. Glad you’re back. As always your videos are informative. 👍

[@vincitveritas3872]

Great video as always. Thank you👍

[@soccerguy2433]

Always great informative videos !

[@QUIRK1019]

Amy I hope you are enjoying making these videos as much as we enjoy watching them!

[@bobblum5973]

Thanks, Amy, a great job as always. Even if you cover a topic I'm familiar with, it refreshes my memory. Plus often there are bits of information that I _didn't_ know about!

[@stevenclarke5606]

Hi Amy it’s nice to see you back again, another great video very well presented and researched. As a child of the sixties I remember following the NASA rocket launches and being absolutely fascinated. I had never heard of Star Fish project, it’s another crazy idea from the sixties, great job Amy , thanks.

[@JohnDrysdale73]

Good to see you back. Love your videos and I learn something every time!

[@stanthrasher4815]

Tks for all you do!

[@floydlake4043]

love the positive presentation almost presumptive.........coooollll.....thanks

[@TheOldGord]

Great topic and presentation, as always. Thank you.

[@jonathanpeden9930]

Amy - awesome content as usual!

[@EdwardZabinski]

Happy to see you back! You are so great, you could read the phone book and I would watch!

[@SorenDK1976]

Great video. I love these videos on "strange" and little known subjects like this one.

[@daveleeds8682]

Thanks again for the amazing content, look forward to seeing more!

[@Kevin-hb7yq]

Nicely done. I hope you continue to create videos.

[@BarryH1701]

Thank you for your wonderful work and for helping me relive my childhood as I grew up during the Apollo era.

[@TraderDan58]

Great video. Always enjoy your work.

[@mattomon1045]

Thank you Miss Amy for the information.

[@twothreebravo]

Excellent video as usual on a highly charged topic.

[@jeffreyb.2817]

I just had to say that I really enjoy your channel. I'm not trying to say anything other than it's a classy channel in a sea of junk. Great stories, great examples and classy set. Keep up the good work.

[@rconger24]

May 17th 2024 Wikipedia shows a web page for Amy. Also Instagram shows a May 8th 2024 entry. She seemed fine 10 days ago.

[@RBA3]

Thanks for another great video!

[@yondie491]

So great to have a new video!

[@TheDerperado]

Actual conversation between Van Allen and some other science guy: - Hey dude.. *puts smoking bong on a table* The space radiation thing is cool, but it's bad for the space men right? - Yeah dude, like totally dangerous.. - Yeah I mean dude, I was thinking, if we like, get rid of it man.. - Dude, like how? - Like, there is a lot of radiation, but if like we just like add some more radiation, there would be like too much radiation, and it would like disappear man. - ... - Like I went to the beach in Florida, there was a starfish just lying on the sand, and I was like "Dude, a starfish, man". The next day there was like a hundred starfishies, just like everywhere. Then the seagulls and crabs just came in and started eating them. And the next day, no more starfishes, like none at all. - Dude that's sick man. - So if there was only one starfish, nobody would notice it. But like a hundred man? All the gulls and grabs are gonna notice and eat them all. - ... Dude that could like totally work man. - But dudendo, I don't know where we could like get that much radiation. - Dude, nukes man. - Hey dude, I don't know if you can just buy nukes man. And I haven't paid even the last months rent yet man. - Just ask the air force dude. - Man, you think they would let us use one? - Like totally dude, my friend in MIT got one for his stag party in Nevada. He just told them that he's gonna study numbats but he cant study them in the night because its too dark to see. - I thought numbats live in the Austria man. - The air force doesn't care man, they are just looking for excuses to nuke things up. - Awesome man, do you have the air force dudes number?

[@tomnesler2089]

Very interesting topic. I just purchased your "Breaking the chains of space" book (paperback) and am loving it. You are a very good writer as well as a presenter. Keep up the hard work!...🙂

[@twohandsandaradio]

Or was someone else a good writer? Read the reviews...

[@Canada_Dominium]

@@twohandsandaradio Are you still on your witch hunt, old man?

[@charlesnavarra8574]

We can't get enough.....of her channels. More please!

[@thomaswilson1312]

Thanks Amy. Good to have you back. Very much enjoyed the Komarov video. Hope to see more about the Soviet programme.

[@mikkosaarinen3225]

Thank you for making cool videos ☺️ P.s. Looking forwards to find out all the topics you'll be covering once you branch out.

[@clcortelyou]

Your mention of the Trinity Test reminded me of my great aunt, Ethaline Hartge Cortelyou, who was a chemist and technical editor and writer on Oppenheimer's University of Chicago staff during the Manhattan Project. I only met her once, but she wrote me a couple of letters in the mid-eighties. She wanted to avoid the use of nuclear weapons and, at the end of 1984, I spent a month in jail for participating in an anti-nuclear weapons protest. She was a strong advocate for women in the science fields throughout her career and, from the stories I've heard, a brilliant, funny, and independent spirit.

[@RV4aviator]

So glad you are BACK Women...! Keep educating us...! Love JPL.... !!!!

[@moosethompson]

Thanks for another great program. Looking forward to more mid-century history.

[@zandvoort8616]

Another very informative film, thanks.

[@Zazu2You]

Great information!! Thanks for all you do!! Cheers!! 🤓

[@Karreth]

Love your work, Amy.

[@MrHomer1995]

Nice to see you back on my feed!!

[@paulcordingley3434]

Excellent and well researched as always. I always look forward to your videos. Thank you.

[@erikziak1249]

I appreciate the effort you put into your videos. Down to details of your make-up and dress. I like the vintage look and your dress is very elegant, hopefully it is comfortable as well.

[@leecarleton94]

Another great trip into space history. Love the video's always interesting to watch. 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[@broxtt]

Thank you. Always fascinating

[@gabemartinez8928]

Amy another great one for the New Year!!! God bless and keep up the good work!!! Love and enjoy your Vintage Space channel!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

[@michaelmorris4]

Another great video, thanks. 😁

[@vincentharris110]

Commercials during a simple 10 minutes video, maddening! Good video Amy.

[@zandvoort8616]

History is so fascinating!

[@davidhingst7063]

Thank you Amy. I appreciate what you do.

[@richardsisk1770]

Interesting as always. Thank you Amy!

[@davidcollison8973]

Hope all is well Amy! I really love your corner of the internet.

[@sridharkrishnan1591]

Van Allen belt. That's something new I learnt today. Thanks

[@JeffPost]

Thanks for all of the fantastic content!

[@Simonize41]

Thanks Amy. As always your videos are very well written, explained and great fun. See you next time.👋🏻

[@CrazyYog]

Thanks Amy for another interesting and insightful video!

[@icaropereira3218]

Nice to have you back!

[@chrisgeddes26]

Awesome video Amy! Thank you.

[@MIflyer5124]

The nuclear weapons of Starship Prime and other exo-atmospheric US nuclear test s were launched using SM-75 Thor IRBMs launched from Johnston Island in the Pacific. The missiles used were some of the Thors that had been deployed to Great Britain under Project Emily, which was a stopgap effort to respond to the Soviet deployment of the SS-6 Sapwood ICBM until the US Atlas ICBM could be made operational. The SM-75 Thors eventually received the designation LV-2D, and had a dual purpose at Johnston Island. They also could have been used as nuclear antisatellite weapons and in fact a number of unarmed ASAT tests were conducted, usually using the Echo balloon satellite as a target. One Thor armed with an actual nuclear weapon failed shortly after liftoff and the device was "single pointed" by only partially detonating a portion of the explosives, scattering nuclear material over Johnston Island . The last USAF Thor launch occurred in 1980. When the USAF shut down the Thor program in 1981 there were still four LV-2D boosters left in the inventory.

[@alandaters8547]

Nice video! I was a kid when Gemini missions were done and did not know (or forgot!) about the high altitude mission of Gemini 11- Thank You.

[@wodzekleaf]

This is the best space history channel ever ♥️

[@ducksonarock]

You're great!

[@v1ckers]

Thanks, Amy! I knew about Starfish Prime and Apollo, but wasn’t aware of the connection.

[@vonholdinghausen6886]

As interesting as always! What a wonderful blue color on that dress!

[@mampe4122]

Read "Fighting for Space" a week ago. Enjoyed it a great deal. Thank you!

[@michealoflaherty1265]

Great video and thanks for explaining the International geophysical year

[@VorpalBunnysRevenge]

Your channel is simply a verification that you are a Miracle.

[@rastersoft]

Thank you for another great video!!!!

[@valravynpaganson8426]

Thank you Amy! Very interesting topic which never seems to be mentioned in the official Apollo documentaries.

[@Brakus23]

Thank you for this video! I know it was posted years ago, but I just now found it. Since I first heard about this, I have looked for more information but didn't find a whole lot, and have always wanted more information about it.

[@isaacplaysbass8568]

Fascinating Amy, Thank you, I remember reading about the Van Allen belts when I was a kid in the '80s, mind blown! Love your vintage style too; will you launch a spin-off channel about your mid century furniture, clothes etc?

[@brettisernhagen9446]

I’m loving the Kerbal Space music in the background