DARPA selects three prime contractors for DRACO program Shane McGlaun - Apr 15, 2021, 5:01am CDT DARPA has announced that it has awarded contracts for the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. The program’s stated goal is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system above low Earth orbit by 2025. The trio of prime contractors selected by DARPA includes General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin. DARPA says that rapid maneuvering is a core tenant for modern DoD operations on land, sea, and air. However, rapid maneuvering in space has been challenging due to electric and chemical space propulsion systems in use today. Those systems have limitations in thrust-to-weight for electric and propellant efficiency for chemical propulsion systems. DRACO’s nuclear thermal propulsion system has the potential for high thrust-to-weight ratios similar to in-space chemical propulsion while approaching the high propellant efficiency of electric systems.