> <i>British government documents detailing the fate of the satellite remained locked away for 50 years. Reading through a copy of the file stamped ‘secret’ in red letters today, it is clear why: Nasa realised almost immediately what had happened to the satellite but the UK was, embarrassingly, kept in the dark.</i><p>Another example of Classification used to censor something that poses no security risk, but holds huge reputation risk.
If I recall correctly, there were a couple of people (I don't remember if they were astronauts or cosmonauts) in orbit at the time of Starfish Prime, whose space capsule passed through the radiation belt on its orbit. The space agency in question was pretty nervous about <i>them</i> getting fried as well, and was kind of upset they weren't informed ahead of time.