Barbicane reluctantly agrees to call off his experiment and accedes to the president's request not to reveal the reasons for the decision. Barbicane declares that as a scientist he has the right to test his invention, but Grant insists that internationally the trial is seen as a ruse to cover America's play for global dominance.

Grant informs the inventor that many nations believe that Power X gives America an unfair military advantage over them and twenty-two nations have stated that if Barbicane's experiment is completed, they will consider it an act of war. Plans for building the rocket proceed, providing employment and enthusiasm in the region, until Barbicane is summoned by President Ulysses S. Using only a few drops of Power X in a small bullet-shaped projectile, Barbicane not only completely annihilates Nicholl's metal shield, but demolishes the mountain behind it. Barbicane agrees and a test is soon arranged. where he reports to Congress that he has forged the hardest substance known to man and, insisting that Barbicane is lying about the potential of Power X, demands that Barbicane test it against his invention. When Barbicane refuses, Nicholl goes to Washington, D.C. Word rapidly spreads of Barbicane's construction of a 'super-rocket,' horrifying prominent metallurgist Stuyvesant Nicholl, a serious, religious man, who challenges Barbicane to a duel. Numerous wealthy businessmen in the club, including Josef Cartier, author Jules Verne, banker Morgana and scientist Aldo Von Metz, agree to support Barbicane's fantastic project.

In 1868 America, munitions mogul and inventor Victor Barbicane calls a meeting of the International Armaments Club at his sprawling mansion, Victory, to inform them of his development of an extremely powerful explosive, 'Power X.' Barbicane explains that a rocket carrying Power X could destroy an entire city and, because of its dangerous properties, proposes building a great rocket to travel to the moon where he will test the abilities of Power X.

From the earth to the moon verne