While this latest test doesn’t make nuclear-powered rocket engines viable just yet, it’s an important step on the journey. This latest batch of tests was conducted at the compact fuel element ...

Research into nuclear thermal rocket engines by NASA began in 1959. A key program in the 1960s, called the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, even sought to demonstrate the technology ...

A UK company with lofty aspirations around sustainable space travel has test-fired a rocket engine powered in part by plastic waste. Pulsar Fusion's ambitious plans also involve the development of ...

"Our experiment aimed to test a fuel coating technique and evaluate if it can withstand the intense environment of a nuclear thermal rocket," said Brandon Wilson, an R&D staff member in ORNL's ...

NASA and the U.S. military plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in space as early as 2027, potentially revolutionizing how people travel the cosmos in the coming decades.. The two agencies ...

The United States last conducted a nuclear thermal rocket engine test more than 50 years ago. Those were conducted as part of NASA's then Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application and Rover ...

NASA aims to test a nuclear-powered rocket within five years, the agency said Tuesday. An early concept suggests the rockets could get there within 45 days.

In 2022, DARPA announced its goal of conducting an in-space flight demonstration of nuclear thermal propulsion in 2026. In January 2023, NASA and DARPA announced a partnership to test a nuclear ...

A test rocket carrying a component for a future US nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile blew up 11 seconds after takeoff Wednesday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California ...

Like the others, it utilized a Thor rocket with a W49 nuclear warhead. It took off July 9, 1962. The rocket shot through the atmosphere, detonating roughly 250 miles above the surface.

A new test of nuclear propellant fuel under space-like conditions has been hailed as a success by NASA and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS), in what is considered one more step on ...