One Second After – Of EMP and Post-Apocolypse America (Part 1)
By Steeljawscribe, on August 18th, 2009
Dominic_Thor_Pad_sm9 July 1962. At Johnston Atoll, a scrap of coral in a remote part of the Pacific, a Thor IRBM stands on the pad as launch preparations are carried out. Loaded with test equipment, its prime payload is a W-49/Mk-4 RV payload. The target, however, is not to be found on a map or chart.
Instead, today’s launch is part of the DOMINIC series of atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were ordered following the re-start of Soviet atmospheric testing, most notable of which was the test of the Царь-бомба (lit: “tsar bomba 0“), the largest nuclear explosion to date.
The test today is one of some 36 planned tests under DOMINIC. Most of these, like Housatonic, were air-dropped weapons (Housatonic had a yield of ~8Mt).