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Command and Control | Digital Short

Freeman Dyson and Project Orion

From the Collection: Retro Report

Could interplanetary space travel be made possible by harnessing the power of a nuclear bomb?

In 1958, that was the question facing nuclear physicist Freeman Dyson and the team behind Project Orion — one of many Cold War attempts to find new beneficial uses for the bomb. Then one day, Dyson had a realization that made him rethink his support of nuclear testing. Learn his story in this co-production of Retro Report and American Experience.

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