An Nimitz class aircraft carrier has around 6,000 crew members on board. Sinking an aircraft carrier would be an attack worse than 9/11 and elicit a similar response. Maybe some crew members would escape or get rescued, but a bomb large enough to blow up an aircraft carrier is also going to be large enough to kill everyone on or below the deck.

The space race was a dick waving contest and nobody was intentionally killed for that. Bombing naval vessels is not a dick waving contest.