I remember asking a similar question a while ago following a pub conversation where my mates and I speculated about how much different the original Planet of the Apes film would have been if Charlton Heston and his crew had been armed with M16's. (I tried to search for the thread in question but I can't pull up anything using the search function and I can only view my previous 500 posts and I think it was before that).
If I remember correctly the original pub conversation ended up getting a bit silly when someone (it might have been me) speculated on what would have happened if the astronauts had started lobbing 60mm HE mortar rounds into the middle of Ape City...
I think the consensus of opinion at the time was that no, US space missions were not armed, although I don;t think there was 100% proof one way or the other...(although there was always Moonraker)
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Author of the unofficial and strictly non canon Alternative Survivor’s Guide to the United Kingdom
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