Operation Fish Bowl

Operation Fishbowl was one of the most dramatic episodes of the Cold War — a daring gamble by the United States in 1962 to explode nuclear bombs high above Earth, far above the clouds, to see what secrets the empty skies held. Military Wiki+4Wikipedia+4NASA Technical Reports Server+4

It was carried out under the larger umbrella of Operation Dominic, spurred into motion after the Soviet Union ended a test moratorium in 1961. Nuclear Weapon Archive+2Wikipedia+2 The U.S. launched a series of high-altitude nuclear tests from Johnston Island, using Thor rockets to carry warheads into exoatmospheric heights — some as much as 400 km above the Earth. Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3NASA Technical Reports Server+3

Perhaps the most famous test was Starfish Prime (July 9, 1962): a 1.4-megaton detonation at roughly 400 km high. The explosion lit up night skies in Hawaii, caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that knocked out streetlights nearly 1,000 miles away, and generated artificial radiation belts that damaged satellites long after the flash had faded. Nuclear Weapon Archive+3Wikipedia+3NASA Technical Reports Server+3

But not all went according to plan. Several tests before and after Starfish Prime — Bluegill, Bluegill Prime, Bluegill Double Prime, and more — suffered failures: rockets malfunctioned, tracking was lost, or explosions had to be aborted. The fallout wasn’t just technical — failed flights spewed radioactive debris onto Johnston Island, forcing clean-ups, delays, and recalibration of safety protocols. llnl.gov+3Wikipedia+3Military Wiki+3

The legacy of Fishbowl remains chilling: it revealed that the man-made sky is vulnerable in ways few had foreseen. The tests reshaped our understanding of nuclear explosions in space, changed designs for national defense, and left behind an artificial belt of radiation — a glowing scar in Earth’s magnetic field that would haunt satellites and engineers for years to come. Wikipedia+4Military Wiki+4atomicarchive.com+4