There have been off and on nuclear thermal rockets program since the 1960s. In 2022, DARPA announced its goal of conducting an in-space flight demonstration of nuclear thermal propulsion in 2026. In ...

NASA wants to design and demonstrate a working nuclear thermal rocket by 2027. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson introduced the project on Tuesday (Jan. 24) during a presentation at the 2023 American ...

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 ...

Engineers say a nuclear thermal rocket could cut astronauts' travel time to Mars from nine months to two. Credit: NASA NASA and the U.S. military plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in ...

NASA is still shooting for the Red Planet, aiming to get astronauts there by the late 2030s or early 2040s. And it still views nuclear thermal propulsion as a key breakthrough that could make this ...

NASA said the last nuclear thermal rocket engine tests conducted by the U.S. took place more than 50 years ago under NASA’s Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application and Rover projects. Video ...

So youtuber Angry Astronaut says we should depend upon a nuclear thermal rocket that is not yet into its full design phase and has no actual specs (ISP or thrust). However, one of the program managers ...

The U.S. is very aware of the nuclear future of spaceflight—or at least it used to be. NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) were launching a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR ...

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 ...