For years space agencies have been looking for the nuclear alternative at the space vehicle level. We already saw that Russia gave data on its progress and now it is DARPA, an American agency, which announces intention to launch nuclear rocket into orbit in 2025.
Specifically, it will be a space vehicle with thermonuclear propulsion within the DRACO program, acronym for Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations. An initiative of this research agency in the US Department of Defense focused on developing vehicles with this type of propulsion with which, as they have announced, they will have two old (very) acquaintances: Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin.
Both are common in the aeronautical and space industry. In the case of Loockhed Martin, we talked about them, for example, for their participation in NASA’s X-59 supersonic plane, and Blue Origin, Jeff BEzos’s space company, we have also commented on their progress, in fact a year ago they were I knew that both companies are working on a lander to get astronauts to the moon.
