America’s Strangest Weapon Ever Launched Into Space

In the early 1960s, the United States launched one of the strangest projects of the Cold War: nearly half a billion copper needles into orbit. The goal was simple but terrifyingly important. If a nuclear war destroyed undersea communication cables or disrupted the ionosphere, America needed a way to communicate with its forces around the world. The solution was Project West Ford, an audacious attempt to create an artificial ionosphere by turning Earth’s orbit into a giant radio antenna. The experiment briefly worked, proving that messages could be bounced off a ring of copper filaments circling the planet. But it also sparked international outrage, drew protests from astronomers around the world, and raised questions about who has the right to alter space for military purposes. Worse still, many of the copper needles never behaved as intended, leaving behind debris that may still be orbiting Earth today. This is the story of Project West Ford, the Cold War scheme that gave Earth temporary rings, helped shape the Outer Space Treaty, and became one of the most controversial space experiments ever attempted. Source: