NASA’s Nuclear Rocket Engine’s Reactor Will Be Safe To Touch Before Launch

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After partnering up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) earlier this year to develop a nuclear rocket engine, officials from the two agencies, lead contractor Lockheed Martin and BWXT Technologies shared important details about the nuclear reactor that will fly on top of a rocket to space. This reactor is part of the two agencies' DRACO program, which will test a nuclear reactor based rocket in space. Under DRACO, NASA is responsible for developing the nuclear engine, while DARPA will be responsible for other aspects of the mission.

NASA and DARPA had teamed up in January as part of an announcement that planned a test flight for a nuclear rocket in 2027. This rocket will use a small reactor and hydrogen to heat the latter and generate thrust. The agreement, called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), will see NASA lead the engine and rocket development while DARPA will be responsible for an experimental nuclear thermal rocket vehicle (X-NTRV).

The pair chose Lockheed Martin as the primary contractor for the vehicle and its engine, which will use uranium to demonstrate propulsion. NASA's portfolio manager for nuclear technologies, Dr. Steve Calomino, explained that key aspects of the DRACO mission will be to test the complex turbomachinery equipment on the engine, understand the reactor's performance, manipulate the engine's performance to power it up, restart it and throttle it. The test will aim to gather data to verify NASA's models on the ground. These models will provide the space agency with the "engineering foundation" to understand