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The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded contracts for the first phase of its Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations programme to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system above low Earth orbit in 2025. General Atomics will carry out reactor development work, while Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin will develop spacecraft concept designs.
General Atomics is working on the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) programme. DARPA has issued a $22.16 million contract to General Atomics for Track A in the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) programme. Work is scheduled for completion by October 2022, the DoD announced on 9 April. DRACO is a plan for the US to maintain space domain awareness between the Earth and the Moon, using a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system on orbit. According to the DARPA website: ‘NTP uses a nuclear reactor to heat propellant to extreme t...
The goal of the program is deceptively simple: Use a nuclear thermal propulsion system to power a spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit. The Pentagon's research and development agency says a nuclear powered spacecraft has the potential to achieve both the high power of an chemical-based propulsion system and the high efficiency of an electrical-powered system. "This combination would give a DRACO spacecraft greater agility to implement the Department of Defense's core tenet of rapid maneuver in cislunar space (between the Earth and moon)," the agency said. The contracts awarded to the companies a...
By Theresa Hitchens on December 16, 2020 at 5:06 PM DARPA’s DRACO nuclear-powered rocket for cislunar operations WASHINGTON: The Trump administration’s latest space policy sets ambitious goals for development of space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems for deep space operations — including demonstrating a fission reactor on the Moon to enable long-term stays by US astronauts. “Looking to the Moon and beyond, the United States must develop and leverage SNPP systems, where appropriate, to enable and achieve US scientific exploration, national security and commercial object...