Project Argus
| Operation Argus | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Country | United States |
| Test site | South Atlantic Ocean |
| Period | 1958 |
| Number of tests | 3 |
| Test type | space rocket (> 80 km) |
| Max. yield | 1.5 kilotonnes of TNT (6.3 TJ) |
| Navigation | |
| Previous test series | Operation Hardtack I |
| Next test series | Operation Hardtack II |
Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-atmosphere nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. The ARGUS tests took 11 days from start to finish with the first launch on 27 August and the final launch on 6 September. They were performed by the 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 tests were proposed by Nicholas Christofilos of what was then the Livermore branch of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) as a means to verify the Christofilos effect, which argued that high-altitude nuclear detonations would create a radiation belt in the extreme upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere. Such belts would be similar in effect to the Van Allen radiation belts. "Such radiation belts were viewed as having possible tactical use in war, including degredation of radio and radar transmissions, damage or destruction of the arming and fuzing mechanisms of ICBM warheads, and endangering the crews of orbiting space vehicles that might enter the belt." Prior to Argus, Hardtack Teak had shown disruption of radio communications from a nuclear blast, though this was not due to the creation of radiation belts.
Argus was implemented rapidly after inception due to forthcoming bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing in October of 1958.Consequently, the tests were conducted within a mere half-year of conception (whereas "normal" testing took one to two years).Because nuclear testing during this time was bending the rules, the military borrowed International Geophysical Year equipment to cover up the nuclear tests.
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