Test Readiness Program The Test Readiness Program was a United States Government program established in 1963 to maintain the necessary technologies and infrastructure for the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons , should the treaty which prohibited such testing be abrogated . History of the program . Events leading to the program . From 1958 to 1961 , as the world powers negotiated a treaty to ban all testing of nuclear weapons except underground , there was a major push in both the U . S . and the Soviet Union to complete as much development and testing of nuclear weapons as possible before such work was prohibited . Anticipating the upcoming treaty , a moratorium went into effect in 1961 halting all testing . However , in September , 1961 , the Soviets broke the moratorium , performing 45 nuclear test events in two months , culminating with a 60 - megaton blast on October 30 , 1961 , the largest at the time . When the Soviets broke the moratorium , the U . S . was not prepared to resume testing , and an immense effort was launched to get the test program back up and running , but even so , it wasn ' t until April , 1962 , that America was able to perform their first post - moratorium tests ( Operations Dominic and Fishbowl ) . Besides the work to prepare and launch the weapon , a tremendous amount of work is needed to prepare and deploy the various scientific data - gathering and analysis systems , so that the test results can be captured and studied . Following the resumption of Soviet testing , President John F . Kennedy said , " The Soviet Union prepared to test while we were at the table negotiating with them . If they fooled us once , it is their fault , and if they fool us twice , it is our fault . " Once the Limited Test Ban Treaty ( LTBT ) went into effect in October , 1963 , there was concern within the government that it would be abrogated by the Soviets , who would then have a head - start in the resumption of weapons testing . Not wanting to be caught off - guard , the Test Readiness program was initiated , so that if the treaty was nullified , or if some other national security concern warranted the resumption of testing , the scientific infrastructure would be in place so that testing could begin almost immediately . Congressional ratification of the treaty was tied to a mandate to the U . S . Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a program to maintain American readiness to resume testing if necessary . The program . In response to the mandate , the U . S . Air Force established a special unit at Kirtland Air Force Base . Sandia National Laboratories was tasked with modifying three aircraft , designated as NC135s , to be used as flying laboratories for analyzing potential future testing , as well as designing all the telemetry that would be used . The aircraft were used by Sandia as well as the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the program . Test readiness practice missions were flown by the Air Force , supported by science teams from the three laboratories , sometimes in conjunction with other scientific research missions . Ancillary missions . Airborne astronomy missions . While flying simulations for the Test Readiness Program , the science teams assigned to the NC - 135 aircraft realized that their flying laboratories could be effectively used to study solar eclipse s , cosmic ray s entering the atmosphere and the effects of magnetic fields in the ionosphere . Program scientists petitioned the AEC to allow for a program - within - a - program to use the aircraft for such scientific research . The petition was approved , and research continued through 1975 . The first eclipse mission took place from Pago Pago in 1965 , and flying in conjunction with several other science aircraft , one of the NC - 135s managed to fly within eclipse totality for 160 seconds , providing valuable science data . Eclipse missions were also flown in 1970 , 1972 , 1973 , 1979 and 1980 . Program ends . By 1974 , the world politics had significantly changed , and it was clear that the treaty , now over a decade old , would hold and there was little possibility of atmospheric testing would resume . Funding for the program was cut severely . The Air Force support dropped , and President Gerald Ford dropped the word " promptly " from the executive mandate . Thus , the Test Readiness Program came to an end in 1975 .