During the summer of 1963, Earth looked a tiny bit like Saturn. That year the United States launched half a billion whisker-thin copper wires into orbit in an attempt to install a ring around the Earth. It was called Project West Ford, and it's a perfect, if odd, example of the Cold War paranoia and military mentality at work in America's early space program.
The Air Force and Department of Defense envisioned the West Ford ring as the largest radio antenna in human history. Its goal was to protect the nation's long-range communications in the event of an attack from the increasingly belligerent Soviet Union.
(thanks Miss Rare)
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