The largest nuclear bomb in outer space exploded 64... yrs ago today. Starfish Prime was a 1.4 megaton thermonuclear warhead, detonated at the altitude the Space Station now orbits. It created man-made radiation belts that wrecked many satellites & lasted 5+ years. A year after the test the USA & USSR signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, leading to the global 1967 Outer Space Treaty.show more

64 years ago Today, Starfish Prime was launched and... became the largest nuclear test conducted in outer space, one of 5 conducted by the US in the upper atmosphere. It disabled or damaged one third of LEO satellites.show more

61 years ago #Today, Starfish Prime was launched and... became the largest nuclear test conducted in outer space, one of 5 conducted by the US in the upper atmosphere. It disabled or damaged one third of LEO satellites [read more:show more

After riding to Saturn aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft, 20... years ago today European Space Agency's Huygens probe made the first landing on a world in the outer solar system when it descended through Titan's thick atmosphere.show more

On November 6, 1971, the United States detonated a... 5-megaton nuclear weapon deep beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska. Known as Cannikin, it became the largest underground nuclear test ever conducted by the U.S. hundreds of times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But there was a reason for a test this massive. Cannikin was the final proof test of the W71, a nuclear warhead designed for the Spartan missile. Its job was to destroy incoming Soviet ballistic-missile warheads at long range before they could reach the United States. The blast was buried nearly a mile underground, yet it was powerful enough to shake the island like a magnitude 7 earthquake and actually lift the ground above it. And that’s what you’re seeing in this footage, not the explosion itself, but the earth reacting to a nuclear detonation nearly a mile beneath the surface.show more

Cannikin In 1971, the United States conducted the Cannikin... test, in Alaska. The largest underground nuclear weapons test in American history. The 5-megaton bomb (about 400 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima) was detonated at a depth of approximately 1,790 meters below the island's surface. The detonation produced a seismic shock of magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale, causing the ground to lift by about 6 meters, followed by subsidence that created a crater lake over 1 mile wide and about 12 meters deep. Reports indicate that the environmental effects were significantly greater than those predicted by the Atomic Energy Commission.show more

If you think Berlin was divided in two after... WWII because of the Soviets, think again. Also, did you know that the German peace treaty wasn’t signed right after the war? It actually happened in 1990! The newly declassified Soviet document says it all: “From the conclusion of a German peace treaty, there’s no getting away.” Let that sink in. The USSR kept demanding a real peace treaty with Germany, not because of some obsession with bureaucracy, but because without it, World War II technically never ended. And guess who made sure it stayed that way? The West. 🧵👇 1/5show more

On November 6, 1971, this nuclear test shook the... entire Earth.. On November 6, 1971, the United States conducted Cannikin, the largest underground nuclear test in history, on Amchitka Island, Alaska. Detonated nearly a mile beneath the surface, the blast had a yield of nearly 5 megatons—over 300 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. The explosion was so immense that it lifted the ground above several meters and sent seismic waves equivalent to a magnitude 7.0 earthquake rippling through the region. Shockwaves were felt across Alaska, and the Earth itself literally “rang” from the force. Despite widespread fears of tsunamis and geological devastation, the government declared the test a technical success. Cannikin stands as a stark symbol of Cold War nuclear ambition—a moment when humanity unleashed weapons powerful enough to move the planet itself.show more

🚨 A 71-year-old white man was attacked inside a... California gas station — all over a parking spot. Police say a (black) Amazon delivery driver became angry after the elderly man took a parking space, followed him inside the gas station in Elk Grove, and struck him hard enough to knock him to the ground. The 71-year-old suffered a concussion. The driver was arrested and now faces felony battery and elder abuse charges. Imagine getting so angry over a PARKING SPACE that you allegedly follow a 71-year-old man inside and assault him. Absolutely ridiculous.show more

NEWS: For the first time, SpaceX's Dragon capsule just... successfully performed a reboot demo using its Draco thrusters to alter the International Space Station's altitude. NASA gave SpaceX the contract to deorbit the ISS & send it into the ocean at the end of its lifetime in 2031. The Dragon capsule fired its Draco thrusters for ~12.5 minutes today to adjust the station’s orbit. Here is a video of the test today:show more

80 years ago today, the United States conducted the... first underwater nuclear explosion in history, Operation Crossroads Test Baker at Bikini Atoll. The 23-kiloton weapon was suspended 90 feet below a landing craft and detonated amidst a fleet of decommissioned and captured ships to test the effects of nuclear weapons on naval vessels. The blast created a supersonic hydraulic shockwave that crushed nearby hulls and launched a massive column of water over a mile into the air. Several submarine and notable ships were targeted in the test: Arkansas (BB-33) Nagato (Japanese Battleship) Nevada (BB-36) New York (BB-34) Pennsylvania (BB-38) Saratoga (CV-3) Independence (CVL-22) Prinz Eugen (IX-300) Pensacola (CA-24) Apogon (SS-308) Pilotfish (SS-386) Skipjack (SS-184) Dentuda (SS-335) LSM-60show more

🚨BREAKING: US TESTS DOOMSDAY MISSILE CAPABLE OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS... 20X MORE POWERFUL THAN HIROSHIMA BOMB The United States has test-launched a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile also known as Doomsday missile, from California, according to New York Post. The missile lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara. Launch time was reported around 11 p.m. local time. The system is reportedly capable of carrying nuclear warheads that are 20 times stronger than Hiroshima’s bomb. The unarmed missile traveled across the Pacific Ocean. It struck its designated target near the Marshall Islands. Officials say the test verified readiness, accuracy and system performance.show more

Wow. China just compieted an in-flight abort test of... their crewed Moon spacecraft. This was the last major milestone before the agency can conduct an uncrewed orbital flight to their space station at the end of 2026. Mengzhou can carry a crew of 7 to orbit or 3 to the Moon.show more

The world's oldest surviving peace treaty was signed by... two kings, and neither of them fought the war it ended. The Egyptian-Hittite Eternal Treaty, sealed around 1259 BC and now about 3,285 years old, closed a conflict that peaked at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC. But at Kadesh, Ramesses II faced the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Muwatalli died before any peace. His successor Hattusili III inherited the standoff. So the treaty carved into eternity was made by the next generation, one veteran and one heir, 15 years after the blood dried, when both sides finally admitted neither could win. That is how most real peace happens. Not by the men in the heat of battle, but by whoever is left holding the exhaustion afterward. The document survives in Egyptian hieroglyphs on temple walls and Hittite cuneiform tablets in Istanbul. The war it ended is 3,300 years gone..show more

On November 6, 1971, the United States carried out... Cannikin, the largest underground nuclear explosion ever recorded, on Amchitka Island in Alaska. The device, buried nearly a mile underground, unleashed a force of almost 5 megatons making it more than 300 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The detonation was so powerful it raised the earth above the test site by several meters and sent shockwaves through the ground, producing tremors equal to a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The seismic impact was felt throughout Alaska, and the force was strong enough to make the planet "ring." While concerns about tsunamis and severe geological damage circulated, officials ultimately deemed the test a technical success. Cannikin remains a vivid reminder of the lengths pursued during the Cold War era, when nuclear tests reached a scale that could literally shake the world.show more

The Spectrum, the inaugural test rocket from the German... private company Isar Aerospace, crashed and exploded roughly thirty seconds after liftoff at the Andøya Spaceport in Norway. This marked the first-ever launch of a carrier rocket from continental Europe. The objective of this program is to initiate satellite launches from Europe, positioning the region as a key player in the space industry. Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler commented on the launch, highlighting that the test flight exceeded their expectations and was considered a significant success. He noted that the rocket achieved a clean liftoff, maintained flight for 30 seconds, and successfully validated the company’s Flight Termination System.show more

On this day in 1919, Germany signed the Treaty... of Versailles, agreeing to pay 132 billion gold marks in war reparations, roughly $33 billion at the time. The burden equaled more than twice Germany's annual GDP. John Maynard Keynes resigned from the British delegation in protest and published "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," warning that the terms would destabilize all of Europe. To meet the payments, the Weimar government printed money at a catastrophic pace: by November 1923, a single U.S. dollar bought 4.2 trillion marks, and the resulting hyperinflation wiped out the savings of an entire generation of Germans. Germany didn't finish paying off the debt until October 2010, when it made a final $94 million installment, 91 years after the treaty was signed.show more

Today in 1946, the U.S. carries out the famous... "Baker" nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in the northern Marshall Islands. The 23-kiloton blast engulfs a fleet of 95 surplus warships, including the carrier Saratoga, Yamamoto's flagship the Nagato and the German cruiser Prinz Eugen. (ODD SIDEBAR: Hundreds of goats and pigs were placed aboard the vessels to measure the effects of a nuclear blast upon ships' crews. The vast majority of animals perished in the explosion; a handful of surviving animals died later of radiation sickness. Incredibly, one baby pig, known only as #311, somehow survived after suffering minor radiation exposure. She was taken back to the U.S. for further study where she recovered. The animal became a popular Washington D.C. zoo attraction and lived another four years.)show more

STARLINK IS RUNNING EARTH’S LARGEST SERVER… IN ORBIT While... everyone else is bragging about data centers on the ground, SpaceX quietly put 9,000 solar-powered computers in space and called it a constellation! Orbital Math: •⁠ ⁠Starlink sits at over 9,000+ active satellites after the latest batch •⁠ ⁠The entire rest of Earth manages roughly 3,000 to 4,000 combined •⁠ ⁠Each Starlink unit is a solar-powered network node with onboard compute •⁠ ⁠SpaceX now operates around 75 % of all active satellites in orbit At this rate Earth’s “space industry” is basically Starlink plus supporting characters! Source: Grokshow more

🚨🇨🇳 China's rocket fuel breakthrough shakes up the space... race China's Long March-12 rocket just test-fired a new "high-energy synthetic kerosene" — and the numbers are impressive 🔸 The fuel increased engine specific impulse by around 8 seconds, boosting payload capacity by roughly 10% 🔸 Developed by a CASC subsidiary after 13 years of research, the fuel improves energy density and combustion efficiency 🔸 The system was tested across multiple engine types and adapted for extreme launch conditions in Hainan The development will enhance China’s ability to deploy larger satellite constellations and support future deep-space missions, reflecting growing competition in global space launch capabilitiesshow more