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It is officially known as the treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, but is often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT) - although the latter also refers to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It was signed by the governments of the Soviet Union (represented by Andrei Gromyko), the United Kingdom (represented by Lord Home) and the United States (represented by Dean Rusk), named the "Original Parties", at Moscow on August 5, 1963 before being opened for signature by other countries. It was ratified by the U.S. Senate on September 24, 1963 by a vote of 80 to 19. The treaty went into effect on October 10, 1963.
Starfish Prime produced an artificial radiation belt in space which soon destroyed three satellites (Ariel, TRAAC, and Transit 4B all failed after traversing the radiation belt, while Cosmos V, Injun I and Telstar 1 suffered minor degradation, due to some radiation damage to solar cells, etc.). The radiation dose rate was at least 60 rads/day at four months after Starfish for a well-shielded satellite or manned capsule in a polar circular earth orbit, which caused NASA concern with regard to its manned space exploration programs.
Originally posted by crazyewok
reply to post by eriktheawful
That why you use "clean" nuke
They exist both russia and USA developed them.
And yeah i know about the badly worded treaty...
Originally posted by eriktheawful
Well the "bombs" for the Orion Project are not simply bombs from nuclear ICBMs or anything like that. You can't just grab the warheads from there and use them for the space craft.
They would be of a different design, made to give a specifically metered nuclear impulse, to detonate at a specific point in the rear bell for maximum pushing.
Originally posted by eriktheawful
....The irony isn't lost on me that Project Orion takes a weapon of mass destruction, that we built to kill a lot of people and threaten others with, and instead use it for an actual peaceful purpose. Almost a literal take on beating swords in to plows.