In the 67 years since the detonation of the world's first nuclear weapon there is only one time the so-called nuclear briefcases were broken out and opened up. On January 25, 1995 they not only opened, they nearly launched Russia's nuclear arsenal at the United States.
When Norwegian Kolbjørn Adolfsen gave the nod to send a Black Brant rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwest coast of Norway to study the aurora borealis, he wasn't concerned at all.
Sure the Brant is a large, four-stage rocket that would fly to 930 miles above the earth near Russia, but he'd contacted the proper Kremlin authorities and hadn't given the flight a second thought.
What Adolfsen didn't know when he left the rocket base shortly after the missile was launched, is that the Brant's radar signature looks just like a U.S. sub-launched Trident missile.
The radar operators at Russia's Olenegorsk early warning station promptly reported the incoming missile to their superiors, but not a soul on duty within the military had been notified of Adolfsen's plans.
The officers at Olenegork believed it could be the first leg of a U.S. nuclear attack.