On June 3, Ars Technica news site reported that the deep May 31 cuts to the fiscal year 2026 NASA budget proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, first suggested to him by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, will shut down the development of two nuclear rocket-propulsion engine technologies that are critical for exploring the Solar System and beyond.
Both technology systems are part of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), which is a joint project of NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and Lockheed Martin, that aims to demonstrate nuclear propulsion in orbit by 2027.
The first technology, called Nuclear Thermal Propulsion, would have an onboard nuclear reactor rapidly heat up super-cooled liquid hydrogen fuel; this would cause the emission of hydrogen gas that would be driven through a nozzle to generate thrust. The second technology, called Nuclear Electric Propulsion, would use the heat generated by an onboard nuclear reactor to generate electricity (the way an Earth-based nuclear power plant would), which would power electric thrusters to accelerate propellant.
