The Day the Sky Exploded (1958)

The first manned flight will send a man to the moon from a launch site in Cape Shark in Australia. The American pilot John McLaren is selected from three finalists to be the pilot. The rocket climbs into Earth orbit just fine, but in trying to leave from there toward the moon, the rocket becomes unstable. He has to abort the mission and return in his passenger capsule. The balance of the atomic rocket keeps going and explodes in the Delta asteroid cluster. The detonation dislodges a group of asteroids from their orbits. they coalesce into a cluster and begin hurtling on a collision course with Earth. Scientists determine that in passing the moon, gravitational disruption will cause tidal waves. Military teams everywhere are trying to evacuate coastal residents to higher ground. At the last minute, McLaren suggests that all Earth nations who belong to the nuclear club, fire their missiles into the meteor cluster. One scientist, convinced the looming disaster is a divine punishment for playing with nuclear energy, tries to prevent crucial trajectory calculations for the missiles being completed.