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NASA looks at reviving atomic rocket program David Szondy August 10, 2017 A new engine being developed for NASA will use low-enriched uranium Cermet fuel rods (Credit: NASA) View gallery - 4 images When the first manned mission to Mars sets out, it may be on the tail of an atomic rocket engine. The Space Race vintage technology could have a renaissance at NASA after the space agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama signed a contract with BWXT Nuclear Energy to develop updated Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) concepts and new fuel elements to power them. The Apollo missions to...

Project NERVA was an acronym for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, a joint program of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and NASA managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station in Jackass Flats, Nevada U.S.A. Between 1959 and 1972, the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office oversaw 23 reactor tests, both the program and the office ended at the end of 1972.

Satellites crucial to American warfare In-Depth Coverage By JON SARCHE Moving through the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, a Special Operations group came upon a fortified Taliban position that Northern Alliance guides said could take several weeks of ground fighting to defeat. Nineteen minutes later, the site was reduced to smoking rubble, a victim of America's growing use of space in warfare. "We've done even better than that in Iraq," said Col. Jim Rodgers of the Air Force Space Command. "We have a goal of single-digit minutes." Making that possible are scores of satellites providing soldiers and commanders with navigational, communications...

Hoping to pave the way for the human exploration of Mars within the next decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is expected to announce that developing a nuclear-powered rocket is its top research priority. The space agency is expected to request "significant resources and funding" to design a nuclear-powered propulsion system to triple the speed of current space travel, theoretically making it possible for humans to reach Mars in a two-month voyage. Excerpt; rest of article here: Agency expected to seek funding to develop way to travel 3 times

NASA wants space flights to be nuclear Fission would be used to produce electricity Agency says safety top priority in 2-pronged project GWYNETH SHAW SPECIAL TO THE STAR WASHINGTON—There's a fact that NASA chief administrator Sean O'Keefe has become fond of sharing during his first year in office: Today's spaceships travel at the same speed as the Friendship 7 when John Glenn rode it to fame with his 1962 orbit of the Earth. O'Keefe's point: There have been few advances in space propulsion in the last 40 years. If the chief has his way, however, that will change. Last year,...