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US-based BWX Technologies (BWXT) has been contracted to develop the reactor and fuel for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), which will use nuclear thermal propulsion. As part of a team led by Lockheed Martin, BWXT Advanced Technologies is to complete final design of the nuclear reactor, manufacture the reactor’s hardware and fuel, assemble the components and deliver the fuelled reactor as a complete subsystem.

Date: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsbwxt-reactor-and-fuel-selected-for-darpa-space-project-11074621

The USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are to collaborate on developing and demonstrating a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space by 2027.

Date: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/NASA-to-test-nuclear-nuclear-rocket-engine-for-man

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) said on 11 June that it had recently awarded contracts to General Atomics (Track A, $22M) and Blue Origin (Track B, $2.5M) with Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) providing critical support to both prime contractors in the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (Draco) programme. Draco will develop a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for cislunar operations, targeting a full-scale, on-orbit demonstration in 2025. USNC-Tech is the only company participating in both Track A and Track B teams.

Date: Wednesday, 23 June 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-darpa-awards-contracts-for-draco-programme-8840312

A new publication by the US Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration (2021)” seeks to identify primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for maturing space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to a future human Mars exploration mission. The study, undertaken by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Technologies Committee, was sponsored by NASA.

Date: Friday, 19 February 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-report-looks-at-space-nuclear-propulsion-for-mars-exploration-8532029

The US Administration has issued a new directive on the use of nuclear power and propulsion in space. Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6) establishes high-level goals, principles, roles and responsibilities, and a supporting roadmap demonstrating the nation's commitment to the safe, effective and responsible use of space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems.

Date: Friday, 18 December 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/US-Administration-issues-Space-Policy-Directive

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded BWXT Nuclear Energy a $18.8 million contract to initiate conceptual designs for a nuclear thermal propulsion reactor in support of a possible future manned mission to Mars. BWXT Nuclear Energy is a subsidiary of nuclear components, fuel and services provider BWX Technologies, which is based in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Date: Friday, 04 August 2017
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/NASA-boosts-nuclear-thermal-propulsion-with BWXT-c

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