NASA’s push for a new nuclear rocket engine is not just another upgrade to the hardware we strap to the bottom of spacecraft.

As the cloud cleared, Air Force bombers dropped in to gather air samples. Researchers hoped that the radioactive fallout ...

A nuclear thermal propulsion engine could cut the travel time in half for future space explorers racing to the Red Planet.

The Space Age framed nuclear propulsion as a quiet rethinking of movement, distance, and endurance beyond Earth.

A nuclear thermal rocket engine in development could one day transport humans to Mars. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Department of Defense, and NASA are ...

WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA selected Lockheed Martin and BWX Technologies to develop an experimental nuclear propulsion system that could provide a more ...

A groundbreaking nuclear rocket engine that could completely change how we conduct long distance space missions is now under construction. The Pulsar Fusion rocket could more than halve the time it ...

NASA said today its partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will yield a nuclear-powered rocket as soon as 2027 with the goal of “a shorter, faster trip” to Mars.

The fuel was subjected to full reactor heat and hydrogen gas and kept there for 20 minutes – about what a nuclear engine would have to endure during a boost maneuver. Other tests looked at how the ...

I’ve grown up with rockets that burn chemical fuel, but NASA’s next big leap in propulsion could make those engines look as dated as steam trains. By turning to nuclear power in space, the agency is ...

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