Test Readiness Program: Difference between revisions

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==History of the program==

===Events leading to the program===

From 1958 to 1961, as the world powers negotiated a treaty to ban all testing of nuclear weapons except underground, there was a major push in both the U.S. and the [[Soviet Union]] to complete as much development and testing of nuclear weapons as possible before such work was prohibited. Anticipating the upcoming treaty, a moratorium went into effect in 1961 halting all testing. However, in September, 1961, the Soviets broke the moratorium, performing 45 nuclear test events in two months, culminating with a 60-megaton blast on October 30, 1961, the largest at the time. When the Soviets broke the moratorium, the U.S. was not prepared to resume testing, and an immense effort was launched to get the test program back up and running, but even so, it wasn't until April, 1962, that America was able to perform their first post-moratorium tests (Operations Dominic and Fishbowl). Besides the work to prepare and launch the weapon, a tremendous amount of work is needed to prepare and deploy the various scientific data-gathering and analysis systems, so that the test results can be captured and studied.<ref name="sandia1">{{cite web |url=http://www.sandia.gov/recordsmgmt/exhibits/ReadinessProgram.pdf |title=Readiness Program |accessdateaccess-date=2007-03-22 |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format=PDF |work= |publisher=Sandia National Laboratories |pagesarchive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060927064133/http://www.sandia.gov/recordsmgmt/exhibits/ReadinessProgram.pdf|languagearchive-date= 2006-09-27|archiveurlurl-status= |archivedate= |quote= dead}}</ref>

Following the resumption of Soviet testing, President [[John F. Kennedy]] said, "The Soviet Union prepared to test while we were at the table negotiating with them. If they fooled us once, it is their fault, and if they fool us twice, it is our fault."<ref name="sandia1"/>

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==Ancillary missions==

===Airborne astronomy missions===

While flying simulations for the Test Readiness Program, the science teams assigned to the NC-135 aircraft realized that their flying laboratories could be effectively used to study [[solar eclipse]]s, [[cosmic ray]]s entering the atmosphere and the effects of magnetic fields in the [[ionosphere]]. Program scientists petitioned the AEC to allow for a program-with-inwithin-a-program to use the aircraft for such scientific research. The petition was approved, and research continued through 1975.<ref name="inflight">{{cite web |url=http://library.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?00285812.pdf |title=In Flight: The Story of Los Alamos Eclipse Missions |accessdateaccess-date=2007-03-22 |last=Mulkin |first=Barb |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format=PDF |work=[[Los Alamos Science]] |publisher=Los Alamos National Laboriatories |pagesarchive-date=2022-04-15 |languagearchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415193703/https://library.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?00285812.pdf |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quoteurl-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/docs/97-Whiting_AeroHistory.pdf |title=Milestones in Airbornce Astronomy: From the 1920s to the Present |accessdateaccess-date=2007-03-22 |last=Dolci |first=Wendy |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year=1997 |month= |format=PDF |work= |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |pagesarchive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060905193322/http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/docs/97-Whiting_AeroHistory.pdf|languagearchive-date= 2006-09-05|archiveurl= |archivedateurl-status= |quote= dead}}</ref>

The first eclipse mission took place from [[Pago Pago]] in 1965, and flying in conjunction with several other science aircraft, one of the NC-135s managed to fly within eclipse totality for 160 seconds, providing valuable science data. Eclipse missions were also flown in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1979 and 1980.<ref name="inflight"/>