The fastest object humanity ever launched was a manhole cover — this is the story from the guy who shot it into space

When I first heard this story, I didn't believe it.

How could an iron manhole cover be the fastest human-made object ever launched?

I honestly pictured something akin to the exploding manhole covers that sometimes terrify NYC residents:

It wasn't like that. This manhole cover was shot into space with a nuclear bomb.

Robert Brownlee, an astrophysicist who designed the nuclear test in question, told Tech Insider the unbelievable story.

He refutes his critics and asserts that yes, it likely was the fastest object that mankind ever launched. Here's how Brownlee says history was made.

From 1945 until 1992, the US detonated 1,054 nuclear bombs in tests.

By the 1950s, the US government and the public were concerned with the radiation that nuclear bombs could release into the atmosphere.

So in 1962 the US started conducting every nuclear test underground.