I’ve grown up with rockets that burn chemical fuel, but NASA’s next big leap in propulsion could make those engines look as ...

The fuel was subjected to full reactor heat and hydrogen gas and kept there for 20 minutes – about what a nuclear engine would have to endure during a boost maneuver. Other tests looked at how the ...

Every year, companies and space agencies launch hundreds of rockets into space—and that number is set to grow dramatically ...

Starlight Engine and Kyoto Fusioneering release the CDR for the FAST tokamak, moving Japan closer to a nuclear fusion power demonstration.

Jim Bickford is leading the Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) project to develop a system for propelling a craft through space faster and farther than ever before. This technology has ...

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed ...

Following Russia’s recent announcement of a successful test of its nuclear-powered cruise missile, the world has been abuzz ...

BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) today announced that its reactor and fuel will be key components in the world’s first demonstration spacecraft using nuclear thermal propulsion. Working as part of ...

“If we fail to cooperate — we may not be there, and perhaps not even here.” With these words I ended my previous article on NASA’s plan to develop nuclear propulsion for spacecraft, rockets, and ...

Humanity has lived in the space age for decades, but virtually every probe, rocket, and satellite shaping this era has relied on chemical propulsion. As scientists and engineers eye more distant ...

NASA NIAC funded the Thin-Film Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER). By May 2025, it advanced to Phase II, focusing on maturing the technology, mission designs, small-scale thruster experiments, and isotope ...

Nuclear-powered missiles work by using a ramjet to pressurize air, then heat it with a nuclear reactor to create a deadly and radioactive propellant.