Overcoming the limitations to our space dreams imposed by the inherent physical limitations of chemical rockets requires a new technology: nuclear rockets.
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced on April 12 that it had chosen three companies for a mission to demonstrate a nuclear power rocket system in low-Earth orbit by 2025. Two companies — Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin — have each received over $2 million to work on the rocket. General Atomics has been awarded $22 million to develop the nuclear reactor.
