Refer to:

http://www.hmm-364.org/dominic.html

From the above URL:

>By July 9, 1962 another THOR had been delivered and was
>configured the same as the previous Starfish test vehicle.
>This rendition bore the name Starfish Prime. ......
>At 0900Z the THOR lifted off Johnston Island and roared to an
>altitude of 248 miles where the W-49 warhead / MK-4 RV were
>released and detonated. The test was quite spectacular with
>impressive light displays from an artificial aurora lasting up to
>seven minutes. The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from the test
>sent power line surges throughout Oahu (800 miles away)
>knocking out street lighting, blowing fuzes and circuit breakers,
>and triggering burglar alarms.

It's important to emphasize that in 1962, semiconductor electronics were fairly rare and computers almost unheard of (back then it was almost all vacuum tube technology). If the Starfish Prime test were conducted today then probably most of the electronics in Hawaii would have been destroyed including computers in stores, banks, ATM machines, etc. (it would have wrecked the local economy).

Read the complete article in the above URL. The people doing those tests were complete wild men. In one test, they launched a Thor missile with a live nuclear weapon on it but the missile malfunctioned. The range saftey officer had to destroy the missile and warhead with a non-nuclear explosive. Chunks of plutonium later rained down from the sky all over the launch site. Here's one quote from a guy who was there that really captures the essence of those tests:

>I got a real sick feeling knowing that there was a fully active
>A-bomb on the rocket. It gave a new meaning to "Put your head
>between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye."

Gary

p.s. The Mk-4 RV is an obsolete design. Nobody does frustums behind a rounded cylinder anymore. That geometry had poor aerodynamic stability.