A new paper analyzes the benefits of this engine—which is almost twice as efficient as regular NTR engines—and the many ...

There have been full scale nuclear thermal rocket engines built and tested on the ground since the 1960s. The US had the NERVA project. The attraction is that the ISP would be up to triple the ISP of ...

The DRACO project will test potentially revolutionary propulsion technology. NASA and the U.S. military plan to launch a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Earth orbit in late 2025 or early 2026.

Researchers have reported new progress in developing a liquid uranium-fueled rocket engine, a Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal ...

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 ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. A nuclear thermal ...

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 ...

NASA's initiatives to pioneer next-generation space technologies are also hit hard in the White House's budget proposal. If ...

NASA and DARPA announced in 2023 that they were working on a nuclear thermal rocket engine, with a planned launch demonstration as early as 2027. The big drive behind these new propulsion ...

More information: Dale Thomas et al, Addressing challenges to engineering feasibility of the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket, Acta Astronautica (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.007 ...

The best, in fact, the only, candidate for this is the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system or nuclear rocket. First conceived of in 1945, this is a rocket that replaces burning chemical fuel ...