ATLAS

VariantOMEGA-3-21-2Sheet 2 of 5 of the dossier Celestial dome

Rockets and nukes against the dome (Fishbowl)

Viral claims that rockets, nuclear tests and Antarctic explorers ran into the dome.

Colour photograph taken from an aircraft showing a streaked orange glow in a red sky, with part of the aircraft at the bottom.
The Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test of 9 July 1962, photographed from an aircraft (U.S. Air Force). The flat-Earth claims described in this sheet say such tests tried to break the dome. U.S. Air Force 1352nd Photographic Group, Lookout Mountain Station · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

This sheet covers the most viral branch of the dome thesis: the idea that rockets and nuclear weapons have already tried, and failed, to break through the sky. In 2022 an Instagram video said that the United States launched nuclear weapons in 1962 to crack an invisible barrier around the world, noting with irony that the programme was called Operation Fishbowl. The same video said rockets hit an invisible ceiling that makes ripples as in water. Another video, examined by Reuters, said that Admiral Richard Byrd had found the edge of the dome in Antarctica and that the Antarctic Treaty was written to keep everyone away. A clip titled "Rocket hitting the flat earth dome" is passed around as proof, and a 2022 TikTok presented a line about a 13,000-foot Antarctic "dome", said to come from an old encyclopedia, as a confession of the firmament. A 2023 Instagram post went further and claimed that rockets cannot reach space at all because one cannot get past the firmament. These claims share a pattern: a real document, name or film is given a hidden meaning that its own context does not support. The sheet records where they circulate and what they say, without presenting any of it as fact. The sheet titled "What Fishbowl actually was" sets the documented record beside the claim.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    An Instagram video from November 2022 said the US government launched nuclear weapons in 1962 to see if it could crack an invisible barrier around the world, and that the programme was ironically called Operation Fishbowl.

  2. Thesis

    The same video claims that launched rockets hit an invisible ceiling that causes a ripple-like effect, as in water.

  3. Thesis

    Another video says that Admiral Richard Byrd found the edge of the dome in Antarctica and that the Antarctic Treaty was created to stop anyone from visiting.

    • The Earth is not covered by a dome or 'firmament', Reuters (reprinted by Dunya News), 2 November 2022
      The video goes on to claim that the Antarctic Treaty was created shortly afterward to prevent individuals from visiting Antarctica, because Byrd had found
  4. Thesis

    A clip titled "Rocket hitting the flat earth dome" circulates on YouTube and is offered as proof that a rocket strikes a dome.

  5. Thesis

    A TikTok video of May 2022 presented a line about a "dome" 13,000 feet high, said to come from an encyclopedia, as proof of the firmament.

  6. Thesis

    A June 2023 Instagram post claimed that NASA rockets cannot reach outer space, with a voice adding that you cannot get past the firmament.