1958 Film #2 - Operation Argus - U.S. Nuclear Testing

Two months away from an impending October 1958 ban on atmospheric nuclear testing, the US Defense Nuclear Agency rushed to test an audacious new defensive capability - man-made radiation belts. Codenamed Operation Argus, the mission was initiated as a deeply classified U.S. Navy-led project to see if the United States could use its nuclear weapons to cast a protective shield around the Earth. Previous tests had shown that a man-made radiation belt could potentially disable or destroy intercontinental ballistic missile warheads. At least three experiments were conducted before the task force was quickly and quietly disbanded. Many records of the tests are still missing today...

Operation Argus was a series of nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September of 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean by the United States's Defense Nuclear Agency, in conjunction with the Explorer 4 space mission. Operation Argus was conducted between the nuclear test series Operation Hardtack I and Operation Hardtack II. Contractors from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as well as a few personnel and contractors from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission were on hand as well. The time frame for Argus was substantially expedited due to the instability of the political environment (bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing were forthcoming). Consequently, the tests were conducted within a mere half year of conception (whereas "normal" testing took one to two years).

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