With a nuclear-powered rocket engine, it could have flown as fast as 6,500 mph to 8,500 mph. And speed is what NASA is looking for to shorten the travel time to Mars for crewed missions.

We will review nuclear thermal gaseous core reactor rockets again in light of the new Bifrost project for nuclear thermal rockets. We had an interview with Tabitha Smith who is leading that project A ...

The Pentagon is funding the world’s first nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for spacecraft. The goal is to send the rocket into low-Earth orbit in 2025.

NASA is planning to test the nuclear-powered rocket by 2027. ... It relies on using a nuclear reactor to heat a liquid propellant such as hydrogen. That heat converts the liquid to gas.

NASA and the US military said Wednesday they had selected defense contractor Lockheed Martin to develop a nuclear powered rocket, with a view to using the technology for missions to Mars.

Nuclear-powered rocket tests will begin as early as 2027. According to NASA, a nuclear-powered spacecraft will actually be much safer for crews, as counterintuitive as that sounds.

In 1959, NASA took over from the USAF, and the program entered a new phase dedicated to spaceflight applications. This eventually led to the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA ...

The United States wasn’t alone in taking nuclear rockets for a spin. In 1965, the Soviet Union began crafting its own prototype nuclear rocket and kept up the research for decades. Well into the ...

NASA and the U.S. military plan to launch a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Earth orbit in late 2025 or early 2026. The project, known as DRACO ("Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations ...

Iran launches rocket into space carrying its heaviest-ever payload, as security experts remain concerned by its "drastically" increased stockpiles of enriched uranium near nuclear weapons grade ...