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On July 25, 1962, at Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, a Thor IRBM armed with a W-50 type nuclear warhead exploded on the launch pad due to a stuck valve. The pad area became highly radioactive, and lengthy cleanup was required before the pad could be rebuilt. The launch attempt had been named "Bluegill Prime", and was part of Operation Fishbowl, which was a portion of the larger Operation Dominic nuclear tests.
Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
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Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger Operation Dominic nuclear test program...
Bluegill
The first planned test of Operation Fishbowl was on 2 June 1962 when a nuclear warhead was launched from Johnston Island on a Thor missile just after midnight. Although the Thor missile appeared to be on a normal trajectory, the radar tracking system lost track of the missile. Because of the large number of ships and aircraft in the area, there was no way to predict if the missile was on a safe trajectory, so the range safety officers ordered the missile with its warhead to be destroyed. No nuclear detonation occurred and no data were obtained, but subsequent investigation found that the Thor was actually following the proper flight trajectory...
Bluegill Prime
On 25 July 1962, a second attempt was made to launch the Bluegill device, but ended in disaster when the Thor suffered a stuck valve preventing the flow of LOX to the combustion chamber. The engine lost thrust and unburned RP-1 spilled down into the hot thrust chamber, igniting and starting a fire around the base of the missile. With the Thor engulfed in flames, the Range Safety Officer sent the destruct command, which split the rocket and ruptured both fuel tanks, completely destroying the missile and badly damaging the launch pad. The warhead charges also exploded asymmetrically and sprayed the area with the moderately radioactive core materials.
Although there was little danger of an accidental nuclear explosion, the destruction of the nuclear warhead on the launch pad caused contamination of the area by alpha-emitting core materials. Burning rocket fuel, flowing through the cable trenches, caused extensive chemical contamination of the trenches and the equipment associated with the cabling in the trenches.
The radioactive contamination on Johnston Island was determined to be a major problem, and it was necessary to decontaminate the entire area before the badly damaged launch pad could be rebuilt...
Bluegill Double Prime
Eighty two days after the failure of Bluegill Prime, about 30 minutes before midnight on the night of 15 October 1962, local Johnston Island time (16 October UTC), another attempt was made at the Bluegill test. The Thor missile malfunctioned and began tumbling out of control about 85 seconds after launch, and the range safety officer ordered the destruction of the missile and its nuclear warhead about 95 seconds after launch...
Bluegill Triple Prime
The fourth attempt at the Bluegill test was launched on a Thor missile on 25 October 1962 (Johnston Island time). It resulted in a successful detonation of a submegaton nuclear warhead at about one minute before midnight, local time (the official Coordinated Universal Time was 0959 on 26 October 1962). It was officially reported as being in the submegaton range (meaning more than 200 kilotons but less than one megaton), and most observers of the U.S. nuclear testing programs believe that the nuclear yield was about 400 kilotons...
